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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Kidnapped Iranian troops being held in Pakistan |
| 2006-01-05 |
| A little-known Sunni rebel organisation said it would kill kidnapped Iranian soldiers if Tehran failed to free 16 jailed members of the Sunni Muslim group within three weeks. Al Arabiya television aired a video from the Organisation of God's Soldiers for Sunni Mujahideen (Holy Fighters) today which showed what it said were eight Iranian soldiers identifying themselves before pleading with the government to comply with their captors' demands. ''We give the Iranian authorities three weeks to comply with our demands or we will kill these hostages,'' Al Arabiya quoted the group's spokesman as saying. ''And we warn all the forces from coming to this area''. The same video was shown earlier in the day but without the demands reported. It showed men standing in a row and speaking to the camera, but their voices were not audible. The tape's authenticity could not immediately be verified. Iran on Sunday said that nine of its soldiers had gone missing from their post close to Iran's border with Pakistan. There was no immediate explanation for the apparent discrepancy in the number of missing. Yesterday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said the hostages were thought to have been taken to Pakistan. Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi was upbeat about securing the soldiers' release. ''We have made every effort to resolve the kidnapping peacefully ... In the next few days we will hear good news,'' he told the official IRNA news agency today. In July, Al Arabiya aired a video from the same group which said it had beheaded an Iranian security agent after threatening to kill him if the Iranian authorities did not free its imprisoned members within three weeks. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 I cant seem to muster any sympathy for them. Wait I just found some sympathy, it was in the dictionary between shit and syphilis. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2006-01-05 12:53 |