- Jan 10, 2002
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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen have abducted three relatives of Iraq's prime minister from outside their Baghdad home, a spokesman for premier Iyad Allawi said on Wednesday.
A hitherto unknown Islamist group threatened to kill them in 48 hours unless the interim government calls off the U.S.-led assault on the rebel-held city of Falluja and frees prisoners.
But the government said it would not be influenced.
The prime minister's 75-year-old first cousin Ghazi Allawi was seized along with his wife and daughter-in-law as they were leaving their home in southwestern Baghdad on Tuesday evening, Allawi's spokesman Georges Sada told Reuters.
"This is yet another criminal act by terrorists and will not thwart the determination of the government to combat terrorism," the government said in a brief statement which referred to only two people, Ghazi Allawi and his son's wife, being held.
Police sources said three people were taken, however, and Sada said he was sure of his information despite another reference in the government statement to Ghazi Allawi's son being seized.
The kidnapping came a day after Allawi ordered a full-scale assault by U.S. and Iraqi forces on Falluja to rid the city of rebels and suspected foreign Islamist fighters.
A previously unheard of group calling itself Ansar al-Jihad (Holy War Followers) claimed responsibility for the kidnappings in a statement posted on the Internet.
"If the agent government does not meet our demands within 48 hours we will behead them," said the posting dated Wednesday on a site often used by Islamists.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArt...ws&storyID=6772650
A hitherto unknown Islamist group threatened to kill them in 48 hours unless the interim government calls off the U.S.-led assault on the rebel-held city of Falluja and frees prisoners.
But the government said it would not be influenced.
The prime minister's 75-year-old first cousin Ghazi Allawi was seized along with his wife and daughter-in-law as they were leaving their home in southwestern Baghdad on Tuesday evening, Allawi's spokesman Georges Sada told Reuters.
"This is yet another criminal act by terrorists and will not thwart the determination of the government to combat terrorism," the government said in a brief statement which referred to only two people, Ghazi Allawi and his son's wife, being held.
Police sources said three people were taken, however, and Sada said he was sure of his information despite another reference in the government statement to Ghazi Allawi's son being seized.
The kidnapping came a day after Allawi ordered a full-scale assault by U.S. and Iraqi forces on Falluja to rid the city of rebels and suspected foreign Islamist fighters.
A previously unheard of group calling itself Ansar al-Jihad (Holy War Followers) claimed responsibility for the kidnappings in a statement posted on the Internet.
"If the agent government does not meet our demands within 48 hours we will behead them," said the posting dated Wednesday on a site often used by Islamists.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArt...ws&storyID=6772650
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