Al-Jazeera airs tape of captured workers, signaling more insurgent abductions

Kidnappings draw attention to the instability in the region ahead of elections.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Four kidnapped aid workers with the Chicago-based anti-war group Christian Peacemaker Teams appeared Tuesday on a videotape aired by the satellite television network Al-Jazeera, signaling resumed abductions of Westerners by insurgents after a lull of many months.
A previously unknown group called the Swords of Righteousness Brigade said it was holding the four, calling them "spies" who are working undercover for coalition forces in the guise of being Christian peace activists, Al-Jazeera said.
The network aired brief clips of the video, in which a camera pans across the men sitting cross-legged with their hands behind their backs against a wall and then shows a blurry selection of what appeared to be credit cards and other identity documents.
Christian Peacemaker Teams later identified the four as American Tom Fox, 54, of Clearbrook, Va.; Briton Norman Kember, 74, of London; James Loney, 41, of Toronto; and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, also a Canadian. They were reportedly kidnapped Saturday in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Abu Ghraib, and the videotape bore Sunday's date.
"We are angry because what has happened to our teammates is the result of the actions of the U.S. and U.K. government due to the illegal attack on Iraq and the continuing occupation and oppression of its people," a statement issued by the group said.
In Chicago, the group's training coordinator, Kryss Chupp, said that the families of the kidnap victims had been notified and that Chicago-area churches have been asked to pray for them.
"We're very concerned," Chupp said. "We're praying a lot."
Two were members of the Iraq-based team, and two were members of a visiting delegation, she said.
German hostage
Also Tuesday, a videotape showing a kidnapped German woman flanked by gunmen was aired on German television, along with a threat by her captors to kill her unless Germany stops working with the U.S.-backed government in Iraq.
German authorities identified the woman as Susanne Osthoff, an archaeologist and aid worker who has been missing since Friday. Germany opposed the war in Iraq and Osthoff, who was shown kneeling and blindfolded in the company of three masked, armed men, is believed to be the first German hostage taken.
The abduction of five new Western hostages focuses attention on the continued instability in the country at a time when the United States is coming under mounting pressure to accelerate the withdrawal of its troops. In a little more than two weeks, Iraqis will cast ballots in a crucial election for a new, full-term government, and violence has been rising ahead of the Dec. 15 vote.
Hostage videotapes were commonplace last year, when a rash of abductions of foreigners living and working in Iraq thinned out the expatriate community and prompted foreigners who remained to adopt stringent security precautions. More than 200 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, and more than 50 have been executed, some in videotaped beheadings.