4 Americans kidnapped in southern Iraq

Posted on Wed, Dec. 27, 2006

Abducted contractors appear in videotape
By Hannah Allam
McClatchy Newspapers

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Four American security contractors and an Austrian co-worker
who were kidnapped in southern Iraq six weeks ago appear to be in good physical
condition in a videotape that was shot two weeks after they were taken captive.

The footage, which hasn't been made public, is the first proof that all five men
survived their abduction Nov. 16 in an ambush in the town of Safwan. The clip
was shown to McClatchy Newspapers in Baghdad on Tuesday night on condition
that the provider's name and other identifying details be withheld for security
reasons.

The provider said the video was shot in response to a demand for proof that the
men were alive before negotiations for their release could begin. The provider was
confident that the men are still living and remain in the hands of a little-known
Shiite Muslim militant group that calls itself the "Mujahedeen of Jerusalem Company."

Representatives of the U.S. military, the American Embassy and the men's employer,
the Kuwait-based Crescent Security Group, said they hadn't known of the video and
called it the first significant development since the kidnapping.

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