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DUBAI (United Arab Emirates): An armed group holding a Pakistani hostage has threatened to behead the captive within 72 hours unless prisoners are released in Iraq.

The Dubai-based satellite news channel, Al-Arabiya television showed four hooded gunmen standing behind a man who was described as a Pakistani employee.

A member of the group, reading a statement, said they captured the Pakistani who worked at a US base in Balad, 75 kilometers (45 miles) north of Baghdad, and threatened to kill him within three days unless local detainees were freed.

"We will wait three days (and if our demands are not met), we will behead him," the person said.

Video Footage

The news channel broadcast footage of four armed men standing behind a seated man presumed to be the Pakistani employee.

The ID of the Pakistani was shown, naming him as Yousf Amjid, an employee of US contractor Kellogg Brown and Root.

The KBR

KBR is a subsidiary of the giant Halliburton company which was once headed by US Vice President Dick Cheney. Like other contractors for the US-led coalition, it has suffered mounting attacks on its staff.

Amjad's Appeal to Musharraf

In another segment of footage, the hostage said he had traveled to Iraq from neighboring Kuwait in search of work.

Amjid called on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to close his country's embassy in Baghdad and to repatriate all Pakistanis, while urging compatriots to stay away.

"There is no work here. I ask you not to come," he said.

The Turkish Hostages

Tawhid wal Jihad, a militant group led by Jordanian Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, said Saturday it would behead three Turkish hostages in 72 hours unless Turkey withdrew all its firms working for the US-led coalition in Iraq.

At the same time, Turkey has refused demands by militants, on Sunday to cease business with Iraq’s US occupiers or three Turkish hostages would be decapitated.


The threat came less than a week after the same group beheaded South Korean Kim Sun-Il after Seoul refused to withdraw a planned deployment of 3,000 troops to northern Iraq.

Last month, American businessman Nicholas Berg was also decapitated by his Al-Qaeda captors.

Blindfolded

Yet another report quotes an Arab satellite TV network, which aired a videotape Sunday showing a blindfolded man in outfit and said ‘he was a US Marine taken hostage in Iraq.’

There was no immediate comment from the US military, but the video showed a card identifying the man by a Pakistani name and portrayed him as an “active duty” Marine. The man had a trimmed moustache and his eyes were covered with a white blindfold.

The Al-Jazeera network said the group claimed it infiltrated a Marine outpost, took the man outside and kidnaped him. The station said the group demanded the release of all Iraqis “in occupation jails” or the man would be killed.

The Group Identifies

The group identified itself as “Islamic Response,” the security wing of the “1920 Revolution Brigades” referring to the uprising against the British after World War-I.