Carroll's Kidnappers Set New Deadline

Kuwaiti TV: Captors Will Kill Journalist If Demands Not Met By Feb. 26

(CBS/AP)  Kidnappers of American journalist Jill Carroll set a new deadline of Feb. 26 for their demands to be met or they would kill her according to Islamic law, the owner of the Kuwaiti TV station that aired the latest videotape of her said Friday.

Jassem Boudai, owner of Al-Rai television, said the kidnappers contacted the station Friday — one day after the tape was aired — with demands that were "more specific" than the release of all Iraqi detainees, which the group laid down in the first tape released last month. Boudai refused to elaborate.

He said that "sources close to the kidnappers" also told the Kuwait station of the new deadline.

The small, privately owned station aired a tape Thursday showing Carroll, a 28-year-old freelancer for the Christian Science Monitor, appealing for her supporters to do whatever it takes to win her release "as quickly as possible."

For Carroll's family, the best thing about this video is that it shows she's alive and well, long after the original deadline her kidnappers gave for executing her, reports CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier.

Two previous tapes showing Carroll were aired by Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV on Jan. 17 and 30, both of which were broadcast without the hostage and her kidnappers, identified as the "Revenge Brigades," being heard. The first tape included a threat to kill Carroll within 72 hours unless all Iraqi women were released from custody.

The U.S. military has released five Iraqi women from detention, but both it and Iraqi authorities said the releases were routine and not part of any swap for Carroll. Five Iraqi women still remain in U.S. military custody.

Friday's message was not conveyed in the latest videotape, but "another method," Boudai said. He declined to say if the message was delivered to the station's Kuwait City headquarters or its Baghdad bureau — where Thursday's video of Carroll was received.

Boudai said the sources claimed Carroll, who was abducted in Baghdad on Jan. 7, "is in a safe house owned by one of the kidnappers in downtown Baghdad with a group of women."

He said the sources claimed Carroll was in good psychological condition and was doing housework with the women in the place of her detention. The sources also said the kidnappers denied killing Carroll's translator when the abducted her at gunpoint, as has previously been reported.

Later Friday, Boudai told CNN that he believed Carroll's kidnappers were the same ones who seized Italian aid workers Simona Torretta and Simona Pari in September 2004 and released them several weeks later. Italian media said a US$1 million ransom was paid for their release.

"I think they are the same group who contacted us last year when the two Italian girls were kidnapped in Iraq," Boudai said. "I think it is the same group who kidnapped the two Italian girls."