Sunday, March 18, 2007
Islamic group calls for release of German hostages
Security
(AFP) - An Islamic group in Germany called for the immediate release of two German citizens abducted in Iraq, in an interview published on Sunday. "The kidnapping has nothing to do with the nature of our religion and also finds no justification in the Koran," the chairman of the Islamic Council for Germany, Ali Kizilkaya, told Bild am Sonntag. "I call on the kidnappers in the name of humanity: Let the innocent hostages go immediately."
Hannelore Krause, who is 61 and married to an Iraqi doctor, and their 20-year-old son Sinan, who works at the Iraqi foreign ministry, were seized on February 6. Sunday's appeal came after Krause's husband and Sinan's wife made an emotional plea for their release in a video message broadcast on channels in Germany and the Arab world Friday. And German President Horst Koehler last week also called for their release in a video broadcast. Earlier this month, a militant Islamist group in Iraq called the Kataeb Siham al-Haq (Righteous Arrows Battalions) threatened to execute the hostages unless Germany pulls its troops out of
Afghanistan.
Afghanistan.
Labels: Germany, Hannelore Krause, Islamic Council for Germany, Kataeb Siham al-Haq, kidnapping, Righteous Arrows Battalions
