Threat to kill abducted journalist

[southernleftylady]

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Armed militants have threatened to kill a Western journalist who was kidnapped in Iraq if U.S. forces do not withdraw from the city of Najaf within 48 hours.

In a videotape aired on the Arabic language network Al-Jazeera on Wednesday, journalist Micah Garen is sitting on the floor, while a militant kneels behind him reading a statement and four others stand brandishing assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. All five of the militants are masked.

The group calling itself the Martyrs Brigade threatened to kill Garen if U.S. forces do not leave Najaf, where forces loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have been battling Iraqi and U.S. forces around the Imam Ali mosque for two weeks.

Garen, a 36-year-old French journalist who also carries a U.S. passport, was kidnapped last Friday in a busy market in the southern city of Nasiriya, along with his Iraqi translator, Amir Doshe.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/08/19/iraq.reporter/index.html