In a chilling new development, militants are threatening to burn alive three Japanese hostages if Japan does not withdraw its troops from Iraq in three days. But when asked by reporters on Friday if he intended to pull his country’s troops out of Iraq Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi ws blunt. "No," he said. There is no word on the fate of the hostages who have been identified as two aid workers and a journalist. Ottawa says a Syrian-born Canadian has also been seized in a separate incident. The hostage, Fadi Ihsan Fadel, was working for the New York-based relief group International Rescue Committee when he was seized early on Wednesday morning. The images from Iraq on Thursday were as violent as anything from the invasion a year ago. A video delivered to the Arab language television network Al-Jazeera shows the three Japanese hostages being threatened with guns and knives as their captors shout "God is great" in Arabic. The video was also shown on Japanese television. Eight South Koreans either escaped, or were released by another group of militants.
A question for my American cousins: did the American media show this video on TV? It’s extremely terrifying and will not win the jihadis any sympathy. It should be shown all over the world, but I suspect it will be shown once and an edited version at that. |