Militants Threaten to Kill Filipino

Al Jazeera television broadcast a videotape Wednesday of armed men holding a Filipino hostage and threatening to kill him if the Philippines did not withdraw its small force from Iraq within three days.

The group claimed to have already killed an Iraqi security guard who was accompanying the Filipino, the satellite channel’s newscaster said. The statement gave no details of the two men’s abduction.

In the video, three armed and masked men stood behind the seated hostage. A banner on the wall behind them identified the captors as members of a previously unknown group called the Iraqi Islamic Army-Khaled bin Waleed Corps.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered a halt to further deployment of Filipinos to Iraq, her spokesman said. The Cabinet was to meet later in the day to discuss the situation.

The Philippines has contributed 51 soldiers, police officers and health workers to the multinational force in Iraq.

In addition, about 4,100 Philippine civilians are working at U.S. bases in Iraq as cooks, mechanics or in other jobs.

The statement and video on Al Jazeera did not name the hostage. The footage shows an ID that an Al Jazeera staffer in Qatar later told Associated Press belonged to the slain Iraqi guard.

Al Jazeera’s newscaster said the Filipino was an employee of a Saudi company that worked for the U.S. military in Iraq.

In the video shown on television, the hostage wore a bright orange garment similar to that worn by the American civilian hostage Nick Berg when he was beheaded by militants believed to be led by Jordanian-born fugitive Abu Musab Zarqawi.