Aid worker's captors give 48-hour deadline for British troops to quit Iraq

DUBLIN (AFP) — The kidnappers of aid worker Margaret Hassan threatened to hand her over to the group led by Iraqi militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a new video which also reportedly showed the British-Irish woman in a distressed state.

The captors said they would turn Hassan over to al-Zarqawi -- whose group has beheaded several foreign captives, including British Ken Bigley last month -- unless British troops quit Iraq within 48 hours.

Arabic television network Al-Jazeera, which showed video footage of a hooded gunman, said the unknown group holding Hassan wanted "the withdrawal of British forces from Iraq", among other demands.

A presenter with the Doha-based station said that it was not broadcasting the remainder of the video "for editorial and humanitarian reasons pertaining to the condition of the hostage".

Hassan, 59, the head of Iraq operations for leading charity CARE International, was snatched from her ...