Jordan Times
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Militants threaten to kill
Jordanian
By Khalid Dalal
AMMAN, September 15 - A Jordanian truck driver was kidnapped yesterday in Iraq
by militants who threatened to kill him unless his employer pulls out of the
neighboring country within 48 hours, a senior official confirmed.
Minister of State and Government Spokesperson Asma Khader told reporters after a
Cabinet session that contacts with the embassy in Baghdad were under way to help
release the man. She gave no further details.
Al Jazeera TV on Tuesday showed the hostage with three hooded gunmen and
documents identifying him as Turki Khalifah Breizat. Breizat's son, Yussef, told
The Jordan Times that the man in the video was his 54-year-old father of eight.
Breizat's employer, Ibrahim Zu'bi, director general of Al Thahabiyyah Company
for Land Transport, said he was ready to pull out of Iraq to help free the
hostage. The kidnappers, calling themselves “Lions of Al Tawhid [Monotheism]
Brigade,” said they were “giving the firm employing the Jordanian driver, who
admitted to ferrying fuel to the US army, 48 hours to announce it is ceasing
operations in Iraq.” But Zu'bi denied working for the Americans. “We work to
serve the Iraqi people and not the US forces,” he stressed.
Three citizens taken hostage along with a Sudanese national were released by
their abductors on Sept. 6. Jordan also secured the release of eight citizens
kidnapped in Iraq in July and August. In some cases, ransom was paid by
relatives.