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US Confirms Holding 8 Women Prisoners in Iraq

Posted on: Wednesday, 18 January 2006, 09:00 CST

By Ross Colvin

BAGHDAD -- U.S. forces in Iraq said on Wednesday they were holding eight women prisoners, after the abductors of an American journalist threatened to kill her if the authorities did not free all Iraqi women within 72 hours.

"We have eight females. They are being held for the same reasons as the others, namely that they are a threat to security," said Lieutenant Aaron Henninger, a spokesman for the U.S. military detentions operation. Some 14,000 men are held at Abu Ghraib and other jails on suspicion of insurgent activity.

Arabic television station Al Jazeera aired a brief video on Tuesday night showing Jill Carroll, 28, a freelance journalist working for the Christian Science Monitor.

It was the first glimpse of Carroll since gunmen kidnapped her in a Baghdad street on January 7 and killed her translator. The video showed Carroll speaking to the camera, although her voice was not broadcast.

A still photograph of Carroll from the videotape appeared on Al Jazeera's Web site carrying a logo reading the "Revenge Brigades," a similar name to a group that kidnapped an Iraqi- Swedish Christian politician in January 2005. He was released unharmed after being threatened with beheading.

An Iraqi Justice Ministry official said there were a number of women among about 7,000 people being held in civilian Iraqi jails under its control, although he did not have an exact figure. All had been convicted of common crimes.

It is not the first time that kidnappers of Western hostages have demanded the release of women prisoners.

In October 2004, three engineers, two Americans and a Briton, were beheaded after being abducted in Baghdad by al Qaeda militants who demanded the release of women prisoners.

Washington said at the time it held only two women in Iraq, both top weapons scientists under Saddam Hussein.

The two, Rihab Taha and Huda Ammash -- "Dr Germ" and "Mrs Anthrax" to the Western media -- were among eight former senior figures under Saddam freed last month.

FOREIGN HOSTAGES

Iraqi-British aid worker Margaret Hassan made a similar plea for the release of women prisoners in a video a short time later after she was kidnapped in Baghdad. She was killed the following month and her abductors never publicly identified.

More than 200 foreigners and thousands of Iraqis have been kidnapped amid the anarchy that has gripped the country since U.S. forces toppled Saddam Hussein three years ago. Most have been freed but dozens of foreigners have been killed.

In Boston, Carroll's family appealed to the captors to show mercy, pleading for her safe return.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States would "make every effort to work with the Iraqis to bring her back safe and sound as soon as possible."

U.S. and Iraqi forces have already staged several raids in Baghdad in their hunt for Carroll, including on a major mosque complex that angered Sunni Arab leaders and drew criticism from the U.N. envoy in Iraq.

McCormack declined to make further comment, including about whether the United States would consider meeting the demands as aired in the broadcast.

There have been several kidnappings of Westerners in Iraq in recent few months. Four Christian peace activists -- a Briton, an American and two Canadians -- are still being held captive.

(Reporting by Mussab al-Khairalla and Alastair Macdonald)

Source: REUTERS

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