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Hostages in Iraq

DW staff / AFP (jam)March 18, 2007

An Islamic group in Germany called for the immediate release of two German citizens abducted in Iraq, in an interview published on Sunday.

https://p.dw.com/p/A1Q9
Ali Kizilkaya, chairman of the Islamic Council for GermanyImage: picture-alliance/ ZB

"The kidnapping has nothing to do with the nature of our religion and also finds no justification in the Koran," the chairman of the Islamic Council for Germany, Ali Kizilkaya, told the newspaper Bild am Sonntag.

"I call on the kidnappers in the name of humanity: Let the innocent hostages go immediately."

Hannelore Krause, who is 61 and married to an Iraqi doctor, and their 20-year-old son Sinan, who works at the Iraqi foreign ministry, were seized on February 6.

Previous appeals

Köhler bittet um das Leben der deutschen Geiseln
President Horst Köhler made an appeal for the hostages' releaseImage: PA/dpa

Sunday's appeal came after Krause's husband and Sinan's wife made an emotional plea for their release in a video message broadcast on channels in Germany and the Arab world Friday.

German President Horst Köhler last week also called for their release in a video broadcast.

Earlier this month, a militant Islamist group in Iraq called the Kataeb Siham al-Haq (Righteous Arrows Battalions) threatened to execute the hostages unless Germany pulls its troops out of Afghanistan.

Germany has nearly 3,000 troops in northern Afghanistan, where it commands the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

No bowing to threats

Entführung im Irak - Krisenstab des Auswärtigen Amts
A crisis reaction team in the foreign ministry is trying to secure the hostages' freedomImage: picture-alliance/dpa

Germany's interior minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, reaffirmed that despite the threats to kill the hostages, Germany would not let itself be blackmailed by terrorists.

In an interview broadcast on German public radio, Schäuble said militant Islamists are trying to influence the behavior of free societies.

"And we must be clear in telling them they will not achieve that goal," he said.