Iraq kidnappers: Australia must go
(CNN) -- Militants are threatening to kill an Australian hostage unless his country withdraws all its troops from Iraq within 72 hours, an Arabic-language TV network has reported.
Al-Jazeera on Friday broadcast new pictures of Douglas Wood in which his head is shaved and he appears to be pleading for his life. He looks distressed and has a black eye.
The 63-year-old Australian engineer is a contractor who lives in California.
In a videotape released Sunday, Wood appeared with a rifle pointed at his head and pleaded for Australian, U.S. and British troops to withdraw from Iraq.
"Please help me. I don't want to die," Wood pleaded in the video.
His captors are identified as the Shura Council of the Mujahedeen of Iraq, a group that has claimed responsibility for other kidnappings in the past year.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said his country would not not bow to insurgent demands that it withdraw its troops, and would not pay a ransom -- if one is demanded -- because to do so would encourage more kidnappings.
Australia sent about 2,000 troops to take part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It reduced that contingent to about 950 after the ousting of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
However it announced plans in February to send another 450 troops to help train Iraqi security forces and guard a Japanese engineering contingent working on reconstruction projects.
Howard's decision to take part in the war was not popular, but voters returned his center-right coalition to power in September, and rejected an opposition candidate who had promised to withdraw if elected.
CNN Senior Editor for Arab Affairs Octavia Nasr contributed to this report.
