July 8, 2004
Filipino Held Hostage In Iraq
Terrorist Video Warns He'll Die Unless Filipino Soldiers Are Ordered Out Of Iraq
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Play CBS Video Video Heavy Fire In Iraq Blocks from U.S. headquarters, U.S. and Iraqi forces battled guerillas on a main Baghdad street for over three hours, and the interim prime minister's home came under attack, Kimberly Dozier reports.
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Video Iraq, U.S. Team Up On Strike
U.S. jets struck a suspected militant safe house on a tip from the new Iraqi government. Iraq's government has vowed to track down terrorists and kill them, Kimberly Dozier reports.
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A still from the terror video, apparently showing a Filipino hostage, broadcast Wednesday on Arab television. (AP Photo/Al-Jazeera via APTN)
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A man is searched by GIs on patrol in front of a Christian church in Baghdad. (AP)
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Iraqi boys in the streets of Baghdad look at a crater left by an explosion. (AP)
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Interactive Held Hostage Details on foreign workers and soldiers captured by insurgents in Iraq.
The three armed men who issued the threat stood behind the seated hostage with a banner behind them that read the "Iraqi Islamic Army - Khaled bin al-Waleed Corps," a previously unknown group. The name Khaled bin al-Waleed is that of one of the military commanders of Islam's Prophet Muhammad. The Prophet gave al-Waleed the title "Sword of Islam."
Al-Jazeera reports that the hostage, whose name has not been given, is an employee of a Saudi company that works for the U.S. military.
Al-Jazeera spokesman Jihad Ballout said the channel received the videotape Wednesday. The video does not include any details of how the hostage was captured, but the terrorists do claim to have killed an Iraqi who was guarding the Filipino, and that Iraqi's ID papers are displayed in the video.
The card, issued by Al-Ghadeer Security Service, bore the name Hafidh Amer, identified as a security guard. The footage also showed a weapons authorization card with the same name.
The Philippines has 51 soldiers, police officers and health workers in the multinational force in Iraq. In addition, about 4,100 Filipinos are working at U.S. military bases in Iraq as cooks and maintenance technicians.
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered her government Thursday to stop sending Filipino contract workers to Iraq after one reportedly was abducted there, but made no immediate decision on kidnappers' demands to withdraw peacekeepers.
"She just ordered an immediate stop to the deployment of new workers going to Iraq," Arroyo spokesman Ignacio Bunye told The Associated Press. "And then she is asking for an assessment from our Middle East team."
In other recent developments:
The United States is offering $25 million for information leading to the capture of terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is suspected of being behind a series of coordinated attacks on police and security forces that killed 100 people only days before U.S. forces handed over power to an Iraqi interim government.
His followers have also claimed responsibility for the beheading of American Nicholas Berg and South Korean Kim Sun-il.
An armed vigilante group calling itself the "Salvation Movement" threatened on Tuesday to kill al-Zarqawi for insurgency attacks that have killed Iraqis.
Wednesday's mortar attacks are the second time that Allawi's party, the Iraqi National Accord, was targeted. In the days before U.S. officials handed over power to Allawi's interim government on June 28, insurgents overran the offices of the Iraq National Accord party in Baqouba, an insurgent hotspot north of the capital, Baghdad. No one was hurt in that assault.
The attacks came only hours after Allawi was set to unveil the law formally. The new law gives Iraqi officials the ability to institute martial law for limited periods of time and under special circumstances.
"We realize this law might restrict some liberties, but there are a number of guarantees," Justice Minister Malik Dohan al-Hassan said during a news conference announcing the law Wednesday.
"The borders are still open for infiltrators and, as a result, the security situation is unstable," said Imad Hussein al-Shebeeb, a senior member of the Iraq National Accord party.
"The lives of the Iraqi people are in danger, they are in danger from evil forces, from gangs from terrorists," said Human Rights Minister Bakhityar Amin.
Amin compared the law to the U.S. Patriot Act.
The law gives Allawi the right to assign curfews to specific areas, to conduct cordon and search operations and detain individuals with weapons on them.
It also gives Allawi the right to assign governors, including military leaders, to be in charge of specific area.
Justice Minister Malik Dohan al-Hassan said the premier would need to get warrants from an Iraqi court before he could take each additional step and said martial law could only be declared for 60 days or for the duration of the specific violence, whichever is shorter.
In its current form, the new law calls for the revision of emergency measures every 60 days, contingent on the approval of the Cabinet, including the president and the country's two vice presidents, said an official in the Defense Ministry speaking on condition of anonymity.
"There will not be an automatic renewal of the law," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. It will be revised "so that we don't have emergency laws in place for 20 years."
İMMIV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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