Baghdad, Iraq – Kidnappers of American journalist Jill Carroll have threatened to kill her if their demands are not met by Feb. 26, the owner of a Kuwaiti TV station that has aired a new tape of the hostage said Friday.
Al Rai satellite station owner Jassem Boudai said the kidnappers set “more specific” demands than the release of all Iraqi women from prison, which the group laid down in the first videotape released last month. Boudai refused to elaborate.
He said “sources close to the kidnappers” told the station Friday of the new deadline.
The small, privately owned station aired a tape Thursday showing Carroll, 28, appealing for her supporters to do whatever it takes to win her release “as quickly as possible.”
The U.S. military has released five Iraqi women from detention but said the releases were routine and not part of any swap for Carroll. Five Iraqi women remain in U.S. military custody.
Boudai said the sources claimed Carroll, who was abducted in Baghdad on Jan. 7, “is in a safe house owned by one of the kidnappers in downtown Baghdad with a group of women.”
He said the sources also claimed Carroll was in good psychological condition and was doing housework with the women in the place of her detention. The sources said the kidnappers denied killing Carroll’s translator when they abducted her at gunpoint, as has previously been reported.
Later Friday, Boudai told CNN that he believed Carroll’s kidnappers were the same ones who seized two Italian aid workers in September 2004 and released them several weeks later. Italian media said a $1 million ransom was paid in that case.
The station on Friday also reported the latest threat by the kidnappers to kill Carroll, a freelance reporter for the Christian Science Monitor.
Two previous tapes of Carroll were aired without audio by Qatar-based Al-Jazeera on Jan. 17 and Jan. 30. The first tape made by the kidnappers, who identified themselves as the “Revenge Brigades,” included a threat to kill Carroll within 72 hours unless all Iraqi women were released from custody.
Security experts said kidnappers’ choice of Al Rai for the latest tape indicated an effort to increase pressure on the U.S. government.
