Islamists threaten to kill Iraq PM's cousin -site (Will Behead Them in 48 Hours)
Reuters ^ | 11/10/04
 

DUBAI, Nov 10 (Reuters) - An hitherto unknown Islamist group said it abducted three relatives of Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and would kill them in 48 hours if his interim government did not halt a U.S.-led assault on Falluja and free prisoners.
Allawi's cousin and two others were seized early on Tuesday.

"If the agent government does not meet our demands within 48 hours we will behead them," the group calling itself Ansar al-Jihad (Holy War Followers) said in a statement dated Wednesday and posted on a Web site used by Islamists.

Its authenticity could not be immediately verified.

A spokesman for the Iraqi interim government said on Wednesday that a first cousin of the prime minister, the cousin's wife and another relative were seized from their home in Baghdad on Tuesday morning.
 

"With the help of God in this holy month a unit of Ansar al-Jihad kidnapped three relatives of head of the Iraqi agents, Allawi, may God burn him and slaughter him," the statement said, referring to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

It demanded the release of all Iraqi female and male prisoners and an end to the assault on the rebel-held Sunni Muslim city of Falluja, west of Baghdad.

A police source said there had been a short gun battle at the home of the three in a southwestern district of the capital before they were seized.

Allawi ordered the U.S.-led assault on Falluja to rid the city of rebels and suspected foreign Islamist fighters before Iraq tries to hold an election in late January.

Scores of foreigners and Iraqis have been seized by Islamic militant groups and criminal gangs. More than 35 foreign hostages have been killed, several by beheading.