Report: New threat to CARE hostage
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(CNN) -- The abductors of Margaret Hassan, the head of CARE International in Iraq, have threatened to turn her over to an al Qaeda-affiliated group already responsible for several beheadings.
The threat would be carried out if the British government does not withdraw its troops from Iraq within 48 hours, the Arab TV network Al-Jazeera said Tuesday.
The network said it had obtained a third tape in which Hassan appears, and her captors say Hassan would be handed over to the group headed by wanted terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The group, which calls itself the Base of Jihad, has been blamed for numerous beheadings of foreigners in Iraq, including the slayings of Americans Nicholas Berg, Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley, and Briton Kenneth Bigley.
In addition, the group issued a claim of responsibility Tuesday for the recent killing of Japanese hostage Shosei Koda, whose body was found this weekend in a Baghdad neighborhood.
On the tape, which Al-Jazeera said it obtained Monday, Hassan is seen alive and pleads for her life, the network said.
Al-Jazeera chose not to air the tape, it said, because of its graphic content, "which could be disturbing to our viewers."
The network said its policy is not to disclose the content of tapes it chooses not to air.
Hassan, who was born in Ireland and has lived in Iraq for 30 years, was kidnapped on October 19 by a group that did not identify itself.
In two previous tapes, she also begged for her life and called for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq, at one point saying she did not want to die like Bigley.
Earlier Tuesday, Hassan's three sisters met with Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and appealed to her captors for her release.
Although relatives have begged British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the British government to meet the kidnappers' demands, "we are Irish, and we have no influence on the British government," said Hassan's sister, Deirdre Fitzsimons.
She noted Hassan is married to an Iraqi and "she is an Iraqi. She has dedicated her life to helping the people of Iraq."
