Kidnappers of FOX news journalists give 72 hour Ultimatum

A previously unknown militant group has released a video of two Western journalists who were kidnapped in the Gaza Strip nine days ago.
Olaf Wiig, 36, and Steve Centanni, 60, of US channel Fox News, were shown telling their families they were in "fairly good health".

A fax from the "Holy Jihad Brigades" to news agencies demanded the US release "Muslim prisoners" within 72 hours.

The video was sent to the Qatar-based TV news channel al-Jazeera TV.

The two men were kidnapped in Gaza City on 14 August. The footage shows the two men seated on the ground side-by-side and cross-legged, in an apparently darkened room, dressed in tracksuits.

Call for pressure

"We're in fairly good condition, we're alive and well," Mr Centanni, a US citizen and a Fox News reporter, says in the video.

"Just want to let you know I'm here and alive and give my love to my family and friends and ask you to do anything you can to try to help us get out of here."

He adds that the two men have been given access to clean water, showers, toilets, food and clothing.

We will give you one chance that will not be repeated - the liberation of Muslims detained in American prisons in exchange for the detainees in our hands

Kidnappers' message
Mr Wiig, a cameraman from New Zealand, asks his family and supporters to apply pressure for their release on the Palestinian government in Gaza and the West Bank.

"To my family, I love you all. Please don't worry, I'll do all the worrying for us," Mr Wiig says.

The group also issued pictures of the journalists' identity cards, and, in a separate statement faxed to news agencies, called for a prisoner release within three days.

"We will give you one chance that will not be repeated - the liberation of Muslims detained in American prisons in exchange for the detainees in our hands," the statement read.

"We give you a deadline of 72 hours starting from today at noon to decide."

The group did not say what would happen to the two journalists if the US did not meet their demand.

"If you implement our conditions we will implement our promise, otherwise you will have to wait," the statement said.

'More serious'

There had been no word on the journalists since they were seized from their vehicle near the Palestinian security services' headquarters in Gaza City.

The crew's Palestinian driver told security officials their car had been stopped in Gaza City .

He said masked gunmen ordered the men into another vehicle and they were driven away.

The BBC's Nick Thorpe in Jerusalem says several factors make this kidnapping more serious than several previous abductions of foreign journalists and aid workers in Gaza in recent months.

The length of time the journalists have been held is longer than in previous cases, and also their fate has now been linked to the question of prisoners and thus to the wider conflict in the Middle East, our correspondent says.

The fate of Israeli corporal, Gilad Shalit, who was seized by Palestinian militants who tunnelled into Israel on the 25th of June, remains unknown.

Two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah militants just inside Israel's northern border have also still not been returned, despite 34 days of fighting.


[link to news.bbc.co.uk]