World

Plea For Aid Worker's Release

October 21, 2004 / 8:27 AM EDT / CBS/AP

The husband of the kidnapped director of CARE International made a plea in Baghdad for her release, saying she has spent her life helping Iraqis.

Meanwhile, gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying female employees of Iraqi Airways to the Baghdad airport Thursday, killing one and wounding 14, an airline official said. All the victims were Iraqi women.

Margaret Hassan, the head of operations in Iraq for the charity, was abducted on her way to work early Tuesday by gunmen who blocked her route and dragged the driver and a companion from the car, said her husband Tahseen Ali Hassan.

During a press conference Thursday, Hassan, an Iraqi national, addressed the kidnappers, saying: "Release my wife. She's Iraqi; she's working for a humanitarian organization and I ask you to release her."

In other developments:

The company commander of a U.S. Army Reserve unit whose soldiers refused to deliver fuel along a dangerous route has been relieved of duty, the U.S. military said Thursday. The decision to relieve the commander of the 343rd Quartermaster Company came at her request and is effective immediately, according to a statement from the 13th Corps Support Command. It was authorized by Brig. Gen. James E. Chambers. "The outgoing commander is not suspected of misconduct and this move has nothing to do with the guilt or innocence of anyone involved," the statement said.

Britain has agreed to a U.S. request to redeploy troops closer to Baghdad. The announcement came after Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Cabinet met Thursday to discuss the request, a proposal that has met strong opposition within the governing Labour Party.

Hospital officials said Thursday that a pair of car bombings in Samarra a day earlier were suicide attacks that killed 10 Iraqi civilians and injured 14 others. Residents said the twin blasts Wednesday afternoon ruined five shops and that sporadic gunfire broke out afterward, damaging several vehicles in Samarra, a city 60 miles north of Baghdad, that U.S. and Iraqi forces retook earlier this month from insurgents.

U.S. aircraft mounted four strikes Wednesday in Fallujah on what the U.S. military said were safehouses used by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror network.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari complained Wednesday that the United Nations has not sent enough election experts to help prepare for the balloting. "It is unfortunate that the contribution and participation of U.N. employees in this process is not up to expectations," Zebari told reporters.

The attack on the airline workers occurred on the main road linking the airport with central Baghdad, the official said on condition of anonymity. The U.S. State Department has described travel between central Baghdad and the airport as "particularly dangerous."

The official said the attack killed one person and wounded 14 — all women. Insurgents often target Iraqis seen as cooperating with American or government institutions.

Hassan, the kidnapped CARE official, has worked in Iraq for three decades and is among the most widely known humanitarian officials in the Middle East.

She holds British, Irish and Iraqi citizenship, and is the most high-profile figure to fall victim to a wave of kidnappings sweeping Iraq in recent months. CARE International has suspended its operations in Iraq.

Ali Hassan said no group has claimed responsibility for her abduction so far and he did not know if she was taken by a religious or political group.

Arab television station Al-Jazeera has broadcast a brief video showing Hassan, wearing a white blouse and appearing tense, sitting in a room with bare white walls. The video did not identify what group was holding her and contained no demand for her release.

Al Hassan said he expects his wife, who is in her early 60s, is "nervous of course" but called her "a strong lady."

He said he was surprised when he heard the news about Hassan's kidnapping.

"I was really shocked, I couldn't believe it myself. She's not involved in politics or religion," he said. "I'm shattered, I haven't slept."