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British official: Iraq charity worker believed killed
Tuesday, November 16, 2004 Posted: 12:56 PM EST (1756 GMT)
(CNN) -- The director of CARE in Iraq, who was kidnapped last month, may have been executed, a British official with knowledge of the abduction said Tuesday.
The Foreign Office official said: "There is a video. ... We believe it is probably genuine, but we cannot be certain at this time."
Officials are in close contact with the family of Margaret Hassan and will release a statement in a few hours when they know what has actually happened to her, the office said.
It was not confirming or denying her death at this point.
Hassan, who was born in Ireland and had lived in Iraq for 30 years, was kidnapped on October 19 by a group that did not identify itself.
The group said November 2 that it would turn Hassan over to an al Qaeda-affiliated group if the British government did not pull its troops out of Iraq within 48 hours, the Arab TV network Al-Jazeera said at the time.
CARE International suspended its operations in Iraq the day after Hassan was kidnapped in Baghdad.
Hours after the abduction, Al-Jazeera aired a video of Hassan sitting in a room, talking and appearing both tired and anxious. The Arabic-language TV network said the video was accompanied by a claim of responsibility from an unnamed, armed Iraqi group.
Hassan, who was born in Ireland, held duel British and Iraqi citizenships, and was a highly respected humanitarian official in the Middle East for 25 years.
Hassan was believed to be the eighth foreign woman to be abducted. All the others, including two Italian female aid workers, have been freed unharmed.
Tuesday, November 16, 2004 Posted: 12:56 PM EST (1756 GMT)
(CNN) -- The director of CARE in Iraq, who was kidnapped last month, may have been executed, a British official with knowledge of the abduction said Tuesday.
The Foreign Office official said: "There is a video. ... We believe it is probably genuine, but we cannot be certain at this time."
Officials are in close contact with the family of Margaret Hassan and will release a statement in a few hours when they know what has actually happened to her, the office said.
It was not confirming or denying her death at this point.
Hassan, who was born in Ireland and had lived in Iraq for 30 years, was kidnapped on October 19 by a group that did not identify itself.
The group said November 2 that it would turn Hassan over to an al Qaeda-affiliated group if the British government did not pull its troops out of Iraq within 48 hours, the Arab TV network Al-Jazeera said at the time.
CARE International suspended its operations in Iraq the day after Hassan was kidnapped in Baghdad.
Hours after the abduction, Al-Jazeera aired a video of Hassan sitting in a room, talking and appearing both tired and anxious. The Arabic-language TV network said the video was accompanied by a claim of responsibility from an unnamed, armed Iraqi group.
Hassan, who was born in Ireland, held duel British and Iraqi citizenships, and was a highly respected humanitarian official in the Middle East for 25 years.
Hassan was believed to be the eighth foreign woman to be abducted. All the others, including two Italian female aid workers, have been freed unharmed.
Oh my God..........
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