WAR: Australians possibly taken Hostage

It appears that 2 Australians have been taken hostage in Iraq in an attempt to have Australia withdraw from the area.



Although the kidnapping hasn't been confirmed officially it seems that the terrorists there are trying this tactic on every nation, it now appears to be Australia's turn.

[edit on 9-13-2004 by Valhall]

Helen - I know you live in NZ. Has there been an official response to their demands from the Australian government? Are their families saying anything?

Thats from the BBC NEWS website it's also said that It said two other people described as East Asians have also been abducted. And a video showning killing a Turkish hostage.

"In the video, the blindfolded victim identifies himself as Durmus Kumdereli, a lorry driver seized near the northern city of Mosul on 14 August."







[edit on 13/9/2004 by SE7EN]

It appears that the hostages have not even been tentatively identified at this stage, at least not publicly.

Will pass on updates as they come to hand.

I'm aussie and I haven't seen or heard anything about this on any of our media yet. Maybe something will pop up tonight or tomorrow.

the possible kidnapping has still not been confirmed...however comments the Prime Minister John Howard is making confirms he will not bow to any kidnappers.

"This organisation, I'm told, has a reputation for having in the past been involved in kidnappings, but also in the past being involved in hoaxes, so at this stage it is intensely worrying."

Mr Howard said a group which called itself the Horror Brigades of the Islamic Secret Army was "crazy enough and evil enough, more importantly evil enough, to do something like this".

He also said the decisions by Spain and the Philippines to withdraw their troops from Iraq after having terrorist attacks committed against them encouraged more attacks by terrorists."

source: www.theaustralian.news.com.au...

Seems to me that they don't really care what nationality people are when they kidnap them - the demands are tailored according to the nationality rather than the other way round.

Also, anybody who is still defending these people and justifying their actions as those of "Freedom Fighters" - they are calling themselves the "Horror Brigades of the Islamic Secret Army" - does that sound like the name of people who are fighting for their freedom or people who want to terrorize, bully and intimidate to achieve their aims?

What sickens me most about this is that, as Howard points out, if other countries didn't keep caving in to their demands they would have given up with this tactic months ago. Here's a classic example:

www.atsnn.com...


[edit on 14-9-2004 by mattpryor]

I'm aussie and I haven't seen or heard anything about this on any of our media yet. Maybe something will pop up tonight or tomorrow.

There has been a few newsbreaks during the day.
I think there hasn't been anything major because, they havn't formally
identified any Australians missing yet.
Have to wait and see what happens.

Goofus: it was on the news this morning, broke last night after the late news had finished. (AEST)

Apparently all the Aussies registered over there have been accounted for, so they still have no idea who these guys could be. But I imagine there would be a good deal over there who are not registered.

I also agree with matt, it does seem that they are grabbing random non-arab looking civilians, then finding out their nationality and figuring out some demands to make of those nations. (The French one was a big nudge in that direction). Will have to just wait and see with the ID though.

Would be nice if we could locate these guys and send some of the lads in to say gday, but unfortunately thats rather unlikely. I just hope these 'Horror' tards do a quicker job than they did with the Nepalese a few weeks ago.

Would be nice if we could locate these guys and send some of the lads in to say gday, but unfortunately thats rather unlikely

I wonder if anyone's thought of using undercover operatives equipped with tracking devices pretending to be civvies?

There are 64 Australians still unaccounted for in Iraq, according to
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
Out of the 154 Australians in Iraq 90 have been accounted for, of
all the 90 that were questioned none had said that anything untoward
had happened to any Australians that they know of.

"So far no information has turned up which leads us to conclude that Australians have been taken hostage," he said.

The above is a quote from Foreign Minister Downer.
Let's just hope this is a Hoax.
I will try and find out more as soon as I can.

On the news they were saying that 6 Australians are still unaccounted for.