アメリカ人の人質は?
燃料を運ぶトラックを護衛していた米国人の一人がイラク過激派の人質になり、12時間以内のファルージャからの米軍の撤退を要求されています。
アメリカのメディアでは、顔をぼかしたニュースしか報道しなかったテレビ局もあるようです。
詳細はこちらからは分かりませんが、あまり大きな報道になっていないのでしょうか?
報道規制??
米国側は、まだアメリカ人と確認されたわけではないと言っているらしい。(4月10日、深夜現在)
おかしいんじゃないか?
THREAT TO KILL US HOSTAGEIraqi militants have threatened to kill an American hostage unless US troops pull out of Fallujah, according to an Arab TV network.
この人も無事に帰って来て欲しいですが・・・・
一応、ファルージャでは12時間の一時休戦が予定されているようです。
Death sentence hangs over Iraq's hostagesIRAQI gunmen holding an American hostage threatened last night to kill him unless US forces ended the siege of Falluja, where 450 civilians were reported to have died in heavy fighting last week.
The Arab television station, Al-Jazeera, broadcast a videotape of the captive looking shocked and exhausted 24 hours after he was seized in an attack on a US convoy between Falluja and Baghdad.
The middle-aged man, who was filmed in front of an Iraqi flag, was said to be a civilian contractor working for the American military. He identified himself as Thomas Hamill and said he was being well treated by his kidnappers. They had given him medical assistance for an arm wound, he said.However, a spokesman for the captors said off camera that US troops must end their action at Falluja, where four American civilians were burnt and mutilated by a mob last week.
“Our only demand is to remove the siege from the city of mosques,” he said. “If you don’t respond within 12 hours . . . he will be treated worse than those who were killed and burnt in Falluja.”
The same station claimed earlier that three Japanese civilians — two aid workers and a photographer — captured earlier in the week would be freed this morning. Al-Jazeera said their kidnappers, who had threatened to kill them, had responded to a call by the Muslim Clerics Association.
However, two members of German special forces who had been missing since Wednesday were reported to have died in a gun battle. The men, Thomas Ritrath, 25, and Thomas Haffenker, 38, were members of the elite GSG-9 counter-terrorism unit. They disappeared after the six-vehicle convoy in which they were travelling came under attack.
Armed rebels showed a blood-caked body to Lee Gordon, a freelance journalist, who said he had seen a German identification badge in the victim’s wallet. He described how a teenager had been sharply rebuked by his commander for posing with one foot on the body.
There was continuing concern over the fate of a Briton who vanished in the city of Nasiriya six days ago. Gary Teeley, 37, a married man from Cambridgeshire with five children, was working as a consultant to a laundry contractor.
The spate of kidnappings provides a grim backdrop to a visit by Tony Blair to Washington on Friday. The prime minister will press President George W Bush for a diplomatic offensive in Europe to secure support for urgent measures to deal with the escalating crisis in Iraq.
Blair is to propose a tour of European capitals by Condoleezza Rice, Bush’s national security adviser, or Colin Powell, secretary of state. They are seen as the most likely figures in the Washington administration to win over critics of America’s tactics in Iraq, which senior figures in London described last week as heavy-handed. Blair wants international agreement on an enhanced United Nations role in supervising the handover of power to the Iraqis on June 30 and in organising elections to follow.
In further violence yesterday the US army killed 12 insurgents in a truck in northern Iraq. A senior Iraqi Red Crescent official and his wife were shot dead in their car in a separate incident.
Youths armed with rifles and grenade launchers fought American troops in a Sunni Muslim area of Baghdad, and shooting and mortar fire continued in Falluja, although Iraqi leaders were reported to have agreed a brief truce with the Americans. A US spokesman said five foreign fighters from Egypt, Syria and Sudan were among 60 guerrillas detained there.
News of Blair’s initiative came amid anxiety in Whitehall about the ferocity of the offensive in Falluja and a warning by a US military spokesman that the militia of Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shi’ite leader, would be destroyed.
Dr Ayad Allawi, a senior member of the Iraqi Governing Council, urged the Americans not to carry out the threat against al-Sadr, who was holed up at a mosque in the holy city of Najaf at the climax of a religious festival that attracted thousands of Shi’ite Muslims.
“There is a danger of a bloodbath if this is allowed to turn into more confrontation,” Allawi said.
Last night several members of the Governing Council were negotiating with al-Sadr to end the Shi’ite uprising.
British military commanders have complained that aggressive American tactics risk spreading the insurgency and have voiced fears of “strategic failure” in Iraq.
A senior Whitehall source said: “The Americans have a different military doctrine to us — that is to use overwhelming military force. Our approach is primarily that which we took in Northern Ireland and in the south of Iraq, which is to engage with the people.”
Blair hopes Bush will adopt “a more conciliatory tone” towards allies and potential allies in the war on terror. But diplomatic sources emphasised that the two leaders would present a united front after their summit. They are expected to insist that there is no question of delaying the transfer of power in Iraq beyond the June 30 deadline.
Blair says in a newspaper article today that he will not flinch from the “historic struggle” in Iraq, a battle the government has to win.
The prime minister says hopes of freedom and religious tolerance would be “snuffed out” if the coalition failed in Iraq. Writing in The Observer, he insists Iraq is not descending into civil war, dismissing insurgents as supporters of Saddam Hussein, Al-Qaida-backed terrorists and followers of al-Sadr.
“When (some) call on us to bring the troops home, do they seriously think that this would slake the thirst of these extremists, to say nothing of what it would do to the Iraqis?” says Blair, who is in Bermuda with his family.
The prime minister, who will visit Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the UN, in New York while on his way to Washington, wants to see the organisation restore a strong presence in Iraq as soon as possible. One proposal to be discussed is to ask President Jacques Chirac for French troops to protect UN officials.
Four British soldiers were wounded in a rocket- propelled grenade attack in Basra as the insurgency spread southwards.
Additional reporting: Robert Winnett, Hala Jaber, Adam Nathan, Gareth Walsh
コメント[2]
TV持ってないので詳しくはわからないです・・・。
明日はイースターですから、それに合わせて報道を規制しているのかも知れません。
3日という期限といい、今度の12時間の期限といい、全てキリスト教へのあてつけなんですね。
完全にもう宗教戦争です。
コメント No.121 | Posted by kagege at 2004年4月11日 07:30 | 返信
ブッシュは、テキサスの牧場で、
ブレアは、バ-ミューダの何処かで
休みとってて、
ファルージャの兵隊たちは人殺しをやらされてるんですからね。
「イースターくらい休みと取らせて」
という風になったのかもしれません。
コメント No.122 | Posted by Hiro at 2004年4月11日 15:54 | 返信
コメントする