US security guard hostages plead on video for US Iraq withdrawal

0 Comments | AFP, December, 2006

VIENNA (AFP) — Austrian authorities confirmed the authenticity of a recording of five western security guards kidnapped in Iraq, who are heard pleading for withdrawal of US-led forces. The recording was taken off a video film showing the four US and one Austrian security guard who were seized last month near the border with Kuwait.

An American correspondent, Hannah Allam, told an Austrian newspaper she had seen the video showing the five, who had appeared to be neither injured nor emaciated. Allam made a sound recording off the video which was then subjected to a voice analysis by experts here. Austrian foreign ministry spokesman Georg Schnetzer told AFP: "The recording is authentic in all probability." But the recording "provides no information on where the hostages are...