Jordan Times
Monday, November 8, 2004
Iraq militants threaten to
kill 3 Jordanian drivers
BAGHDAD (Reuters) — An Islamic group threatened to behead three Jordanian
drivers on Sunday unless Jordan bans local firms from transporting goods to US
forces in Iraq.
“The Jordanian government has responded with indifference and failed to issue a
statement banning dealings with the infidel American forces,” said a member of
the Army of Islam Counterattack Brigades on a video released to Reuters.
“We will subject them to the knife and kill them viciously unless the Jordanian
government responds to this order in 48 hours,” the masked man said.
The three men were among four Jordanian drivers kidnapped in western Iraq last
week. The fate of the fourth is unknown.
The videotape, the second released by captors of the drivers in a week, shows
the three sitting in front of masked gunmen. It includes close-ups of their
passports.
The drivers said they had been well-treated and again pleaded for their lives.
“We have children. We appeal to the Jordanian government to act and ban
transporting supplies for Americans,” said one, identifying himself as Mohammad
Zeitoun.
The Army of Islam is one of kidnap groups that have seized scores of foreigners
since April as part of a campaign to try and drive foreign troops and workers
from Iraq.
The 920-km Amman-Baghdad highway, which runs through central Iraq's Sunni Muslim
heartland, is a main supply route for American forces and companies.