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Terror Group Threatens to Kill Iraqi Christians

Tuesday, April 20, 2004
By: Stefan J. Bos
Special Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

BAGHDAD / BUDAPEST (ANS) -- As the death among United States troops serving in Iraq rapidly approaches 700, one of the Islamic rebel groups "currently terrorizing" Falluja has urged United Nations to stop the America siege of the town or the group will attack and kill local Iraqi Christians, a human rights group has learned.

Barnabas Fund said in a statement monitored by ASSIST News Service (ANS) on Tuesday April 20 that the threats came from 'Saraya wal Mujahideen' (Brigades and Mujahideen) in the form of a fax to Dubai-based Arab television channel Al Arabiya.

They have "threatened to destroy churches, assassinate or kidnap priests, and target local Christians," it said. The threats to local Christians come amid the seizure of foreign nationals. Seven South Korean Christian missionaries were kidnapped on 8 April, but have since been released.

HOSTAGES

In recent weeks, some 40 hostages from 12 countries have been seized in Iraq, many if them are still being held, while at least one Italian hostage has been killed by those holding him.

The latest threat could not come at a worse time for the U.S. as it and Iraq's multinational peacekeeping force scramble regroup Monday after Spain's announcement that it would pull out its 1,300 troops.

Albania, which is seeking NATO membership, has pledged to send more soldiers and increase its symbolic force of 71 in Mosul, the ANS Central Europe Bureau in Budapest monitored. But American officials are bracing for further withdrawals, The Associated Press news agency reported.

Barnabas Fund can be reached via regular mail: The Old Rectory, River Street, PEWSEY, Wiltshire, SN9 5DB, UK. Or E-mail: info@barnabasfund.org or visit them on the the Web: http://www.barnabasfund.org

Award winning Journalist Stefan J. Bos was born on the 19th of September 1967 in a small home in downtown Amsterdam, in the Netherlands not far from the typewriter of his father, who was (and still is) a Reporter and ghostwriter. Already at a very young age Bos decided to become journalist and finally arrived in Hungary, the same country where his parents had smuggled Bibles during Communism.

Bos has traveled extensively to cover wars and revolutions throughout the region and received the Annual Press Award of Merit from the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for his coverage about foreign policy affairs including Hungary's relationship with NATO and the European Union. Stefan J. Bos can be reached at: bosnews@externet.hu.

ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 2126, Garden Grove, CA 92842-2126 USA
E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com, Web Site: www.assistnews.net

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