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Gunmen Threaten to Kill British Journalist Unless US Withdraw From Najaf
London Evening Standard | August 13 2004
Comment: Would you be smiling if you thought these guys might cut your head off?
Gunmen today threatened to kill a British journalist seized in Iraq.
Sunday Telegraph reporter James Brandon, 27, was taken captive when 30 armed men stormed a hotel in the city of Basra.
A videotape was released showing a hooded Iraqi fighter standing next to the bare-chested journalist who had a bandage wrapped around his head.
One of his captors demanded that American forces withdraw from the holy city of Najaf within 24 hours or "we will kill this British hostage".
Brandon was said to have been shot twice in the leg when gunmen burst into the Diyafah Hotel.
Some of the men were dressed in Iraqi police uniforms. He is the first British journalist to be kidnapped in Iraq during the current conflict.
On the videotape he says: "I'm a journalist, I just write about what is happening in Iraq ... (I'm) James Brandon from the Sunday Telegraph."
Militants in Iraq have waged a campaign of kidnappings. Scores of hostages have been snatched by armed groups. Some have been freed but nine have been killed.
Fears were growing that Brandon could become the latest pawn in the fight between Iraqi insurgents led by Moqtada al-Sadr and the US army which is trying to drive him out of Najaf.
The Foreign Office said: "We're trying to establish the facts and are working with the local authorities and trying to contact next of kin." Sunday Telegraph deputy editor Matthew d'Ancona said: "We are pursuing his situation with the greatest concern."
The kidnapping came only hours after Al-Sadr was injured during heavy fighting in Najaf.
The Shia leader is said to be in the sacred compound housing the Imam Ali shrine, surrounded by members of his Mahdi army.
He who has vowed to fight "until the last drop of my blood has been spilled". A spokesman for Al-Sadr, Ahmad al-Shinabi, said the cleric was wounded in the city's vast ancient cemetery.
"He was wounded in the chest, arm and leg," said Mr Shinabi.
However, Iraq's interior minister Falah al-Naqib, under pressure to minimise the impact of the reports, contradicted the claim.
He said Al-Sadr was unhurt and is negotiating with the Iraqi government to leave the shrine.
"Moqtada will not be touched if he leaves the shrine peacefully. A truce has been in force since last night," Mr Naqib said.
Thousands of Iraqis in Baghdad, Basra and Nasiriyah went on to the streets yesterday to protest at the US-led offensive.
Armed clashes spread from Najaf to areas of Baghdad and the cities of Kut, Amara and Diwaniya yesterday.
More than 170 Iraqis have been killed in the fighting and more than 600 injured since Wednesday.
A British soldiers has been killed in Basra, the second in three days, and another is fighting for his life.
The heaviest fighting took place in the southern city of Kut, where Al-Sadr supportersattacked the city hall, several police stations and the barracks of the Iraqi National Guard in a four hour battle. At least 72 people were killed in the fighting, many when US bombers pounded a rebel stronghold.
Hospital officials said women and children were among the dead and 150 people were injured during the two hours of air assaults.
In Baghdad fighting spread from Shia areas which had previously escaped the fighting.
In Basra Marc Ferns, 20, from Glenrothes, Fife, was killed and Sergeant Kevin Stacey, 26, was left fighting for his life after being caught in a roadside bomb explosion.
The soldiers, serving with the 1st Battalion the Black Watch, were on a routine exercise protecting fellow British troops when they were hit around midmorning local time yesterday, just before 5,000 Al-Sadr supporters marched through the streets of Basra..
Sgt Stacey, a father-of-one, from Almondbank, Perth, was transferred to a military hospital in Kuwait.
Just three days ago 20-year-old Private Lee O'Callaghan, from south east London, died after being shot in the chest by armed militants thought to be loyal to Al-Sadr.
In an interview with the Daily Record before he left for Iraq, Mr Ferns said: "I couldn't look my Ma and Pa in the eye if I didn't do my duty. We all think about our family at a time like this."
Annabelle Ewing, Scottish National Party MP for Perth
- the Black Watch's main recruiting ground - said: "I think there is
an increasing feeling in Perthshire, as with the rest of Scotland, that
it is time to bring our troops home."
