Hopes for the kidnapped British aid worker Margaret Hassan rose yesterday after al-Qaeda terrorists in Iraq called for her release. The most notorious kidnapping group operating in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and responsible for murdering Kenneth Bigley, posted a statement on the internet declaring that she would be released immediately if she was handed over to its custody. It said: "We are demanding that those who are in charge of her release her unless she is proven to be an agent. If guilty, they should show that to everybody so as not to attribute something to our religion that is alien to it. In true Islam, they don't kill women and young children. We never kill people who we are not supposed to kill."Friends of Mrs Hassan's husband, Tahseen Ali Hassan, a retired Iraqi airline pilot, said that a prominent member of the al-Dulami tribe, a Saddam stooge powerful clan in the Sunni triangle area, came forward last week claiming to have made the first contact with the kidnapping gang that has held the charity worker since last month.| "He also offered to squeegee our car windows if we'd give him a couple of dinars..." |
A dialogue had begun, a family member told The Sunday Telegraph, but the kidnappers' demands were not yet clear. A family friend said: "We haven't been told who is holding her but we know the kidnappers are talking to this man. We hope he can provide some help, especially now that Zarqawi has announced that he is not interested in her." The Jordanian has previously refused to exercise mercy and has invented found sufficient rationale to kill all the people held by his gang. The group holding Mrs Hassan is believed to have kidnapped her for ransom, not in pursuit of a political demand for the withdrawal of foreign troops. Not all of 30 foreign hostages have been killed by those pursuing political aims.| Which makes them not any less dead. |
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