Abducted Aid Worker Pleads for Her Life in Video

Kidnapped aid worker Margaret Hassan pleaded for her life in a tearful videotape aired Friday, saying she feared the same fate as British hostage Kenneth Bigley and others who have been beheaded by their captors.

The grainy video, shown on the Arabic-language television channel Al Jazeera, increased pressure on British Prime Minister Tony Blair to pull his troops out of Iraq but also appeared to shake many Iraqis, who questioned how a 60-year-old foreigner who had opposed the U.S.-led war and devoted half her life to improving the living conditions of ordinary Iraqis could be forced to beg for her life.

“Help me, please help me,” said a haggard and fearful-looking Hassan, director of the CARE humanitarian group’s Iraq office. “These might be my last hours. Please help me.”

The wrenching appeal came on a day that U.S. forces battled insurgents on the outskirts of Fallouja as part of a series of strikes to subdue the rebel stronghold before national elections scheduled for January.

In the northern city of Mosul, American soldiers were injured in the bombings of two armored vehicles. The attacks followed a showdown between Iraqi national guardsmen and insurgents outside a mosque that was suspected of harboring guerrillas, according to a U.S. Army official.

The tape showing Hassan’s anguish elevated the level of terror for foreign civilians in Iraq. More than 30 kidnapped men have been killed since April, and seven women who were taken hostage eventually were freed.

Hassan’s abduction was condemned Friday by Iraqis who said it could backfire for the unidentified assailants.

“If Margaret Hassan will be killed, it will be the last straw that will break the camel’s back,” said Hassan Jameel, a Baghdad University political science professor.

“This abduction distorts not only the reputation of the resistance, but it distorts even the reputation of Islam. We don’t accept this. We hope that these kidnappers will regain their sanity and release her immediately.”

For Blair, the ordeal represents a political and moral dilemma. Having agonized over Bigley’s predicament but ultimately been unable to save him, Blair is facing another dramatic crisis just as Britain has agreed to a U.S. request to redeploy 850 troops from Iraq’s relatively quiet south to an area of heavy fighting near Baghdad. The troop movement is intended to free U.S. forces for an offensive in Fallouja.

It is unclear who abducted Hassan -- no group has claimed responsibility, and unlike previous cases, no banners or armed, masked captors were visible on the video sent to Al Jazeera.

In the case of Bigley, who was killed Oct. 8, militant Abu Musab Zarqawi and his group Jamaat al Tawhid wal Jihad claimed responsibility after the 62-year-old engineer was shown on a video weeping and pleading for his life.

Hassan, an Arabic speaker and convert to Islam who is married to an Iraqi, was snatched by gunmen as she drove to work Tuesday. A driver and a companion were beaten and thrown into the street.

“I ask the British to help me,” Hassan said in the video, as she stared into the camera from beneath dark bangs. “Ask Mr. Blair to withdraw the troops from Iraq and not bring them to Baghdad. This is the reason that people like me and Mr. Bigley are being kidnapped and may die. Please I beg of you, I beg of you, please help me.”

The British government declined to comment on Hassan’s pleas. London has said it does not know who is holding her and has maintained that it will not give in to terrorists’ demands.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern made a personal appeal Friday night for Hassan’s release, noting that she was born in Ireland and has an Irish passport in addition to her Iraqi nationality.

“Margaret is a woman who has lived in Iraq for 32 years,” Ahern said, according to the Press Association news agency. “She is a person who has selflessly worked for the benefit of her Iraqi fellow citizens and fought for the rights of the Iraqi people for many years.”

The video was shocking even in a nation that has become inured to televised images of bloodshed and sorrow.

“I cried when I saw this,” said Layla Shawi, a Baghdad pharmacist. “She’s only a woman. She has nothing to do with politics and does not work with the military. The people who do this are criminals. This is not real insurgency. This is not real resistance. This is a crime against humanity.”

A Baghdad human rights advocate, Hassan Bazzaz, said, “To humiliate a woman like this for political reasons, this is something that is completely against our culture and against our society. It is unacceptable, because women occupy a special place in our culture.

“For this to happen, we have reached a very bad point. My fear is that we will begin to accept this as a normal thing.... I think, though, that maybe -- and this is a big maybe -- this will be the thing that pinches us to think more deeply about our situation.”

As the hostage case went on, violence elsewhere continued.

This morning, an Army spokesman said, a Bradley fighting vehicle was hit by a bomb on the road to Baghdad’s airport, a hazardous route where convoys often are attacked.

Six soldiers were wounded, but none of the injuries was life threatening, the spokesman said. There was no immediate word on possible civilian casualties.

The explosion threw up a thick band of black smoke that drifted over western and southern Baghdad on a brilliant, sun-washed morning, merging with emissions from one of the smokestacks of the giant Doura power plant.

Meanwhile, in south Fallouja, U.S. troops said they detained a “senior leader” in the network of Jordanian insurgent Abu Musab Zarqawi early today.

U.S. forces have repeatedly reported hitting sites they have linked to Zarqawi during an intensive bombing campaign in the city. Civilian leaders in Fallouja deny that Zarqawi is there and say that scores of civilians have been killed.

On Friday, U.S. Marines reported that they were fired on with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns on the outskirts of the city and battled insurgents for more than six hours. No Marines were reported injured, but hospital officials said five other people were killed and four wounded.

Also Friday, Iraqi officials reported that three of Iraqi President Ghazi Ajil Yawer’s staffers were killed and one was wounded in a Baghdad ambush.

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Morin reported from Baghdad and Daniszewski from London. Times special correspondent Saad Khalaf in Baghdad contributed to this report.