World

Plea By Hostage Aid Worker

October 23, 2004 / 7:46 AM EDT / CBS/AP

The kidnapped director of CARE International in Iraq appeared on a

broadcast Friday, weeping and pleading with British Prime Minister Tony Blair to withdraw troops from Iraq "and not bring them to Baghdad" because "this might be my last hour."

The appeal by Margaret Hassan was aired by the Arabic television station Al-Jazeera three days after she was abducted by gunmen on her way to work in western Baghdad.

"Please help me," she begged. "This might be my last hour. Please help me. The British people, tell Mr. Blair to take the troops out of Iraq and not bring them here to Baghdad. That's why people like myself and Mr. Bigley have been caught. Please, please, I beg of you."

British hostage Kenneth Bigley was decapitated on a video posted Oct. 10 on an Islamist Web site. Hassan, an Irish-British-Iraqi national who has lived here 30 years, said she did not want to "die like Bigley."

On Thursday, Blair's government agreed to a U.S. request to transfer a battalion of British soldiers to the Baghdad area to relieve American troops who would be used in offensive operations west of the capital.

In other developments:

U.S. Marines clashed with insurgents on the outskirts of the rebel stronghold of Fallujah and launched airstrikes at militant targets, the U.S. command said Friday, ignoring a call from the city's leaders to halt new attacks.

U.S. troops and insurgents battled near the central Iraq town of Buhriz on Friday, exchanging gun, rocket and artillery fire as U.S. forces scoured palm groves in search of hidden rebel weaponry, the military said. U.S. forces killed one suspected insurgent, but no Americans were reported dead.

A report by the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee finds that the Pentagon overstated the intelligence on Saddam Hussein's alleged connections to al Qaeda against the recommendations of the CIA, The New York Times reports.

On Thursday, the British government agreed to a U.S. request to transfer 850 British troops to an area near Baghdad so U.S. troops could be shifted to insurgent hotspots. The decision has been highly controversial with major opposition within the governing Labor Party among lawmakers who saw it as a political move to aid President Bush ahead of November elections in America.

All three Macedonian contractors missing in Iraq since August have been killed, an official said Friday, citing experts from the Balkan country who reviewed footage of the Macedonian hostages broadcast by an Arab television station.

A Turkish weldor kidnapped in Iraq and threatened with death if his company did not withdraw from the neighboring nation has escaped his captors, his family said Friday.

A trial date of January 7 has now been set for a U.S. Army reservist accused of abusing Iraqi inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad. Charles Graner is charged with conspiracy to maltreat detainees, dereliction of duty, maltreatment of prisoners, assault, committing indecent acts, obstruction of justice and adultery.

Despite the threat of an election boycott, the top U.N. electoral expert in Iraq said that preparations for the vote are "on track" and the absence of international observers due to the country's tenuous security should not detract from the credibility of the process.

Support for Iraq's interim government has fallen sharply and the popularity of religious parties has grown, according to U.S.-sponsored survey reported by The Washington Post. Forty-five percent of Iraqis say their country is headed in the wrong direction, to 41 percent who feel it is on the right track.

The latest U.S. attacks came after Fallujah leaders had demanded Thursday that Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's government force a halt to the frequent U.S. airstrikes in the city. A day before that, a senior Sunni cleric, Sheik Harith al-Dari, urged Iraqis to boycott elections scheduled for January elections if the Americans launch an all-out attack on the city.

"We demand the suspension of airstrikes and call on the government to call on families to return to their homes as a gesture of goodwill and a prelude to the solution of all outstanding problems," the Fallujah leaders said in a statement after an emergency meeting at city hall.

Late Thursday, Al-Arabiya television reported that the Iraqi government had rejected the latest demands.

On Friday, the military said that "combat operations" have not begun and American forces have not entered the city. Coalition forces are still conducting "security operations," the military said.

An airstrike Thursday at 10 p.m. hit one suspected militant site where "20 armed individuals were seen moving crates and equipment from house to house," the U.S. military said. Multiple secondary explosions were seen but the military said it had no information on casualties.

American commanders have spoken of a new offensive ahead of the January elections aimed at suppressing insurgents who control a number of central Sunni Muslim cities, particularly Fallujah, where peace negotiations broke down several days ago.