Kidnappers of five Britons seized in May in a raid on a government office demanded that Britain pull its forces from Iraq in a video aired Tuesday. The purported hostage, under a sign of "the Islamic Shiite Resistance in Iraq," said the video was made Nov. 18.
A written statement featured on the video, aired by Al-Arabiya television, accused Britain of plundering the wealth of Iraq and demanded the British forces leave within 10 days. On May 29, some 40 gunmen in police uniforms and driving vehicles used by Iraqi security forces seized the five Britons from a Finance Ministry compound.
The written statement said the five Britons had "acknowledged and confessed and detailed the agenda with which they came to steal our wealth under false pretense of being advisers to the Finance Ministry." The video promised to "follow up with their confessions later."
Meanwhile, the U.S. military said Tuesday it captured or killed 40 al-Qaeda fighters in the past month, including a Syrian who died in a Nov. 17 raid. The Syrian, identified as Abu Maysara, had escaped from an Iraqi prison in March, said Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner, a U.S. military spokesman.
Northeast of Baghdad, a suicide bomber attacked a police station, killing at least eight people, police and hospital officials said, according to the AP. It occurred as police gathered near the main gate of the station in Jalula, 68 miles northeast of Baghdad, with Kurdish troops who came to the area as part of a security crackdown, police said.
The dead included four Iraqi police, two Kurdish troops and two civilians, police said.
