Pleas Made for Lives of 4 Hostages

A leading Sunni cleric in Baghdad called for the release of four Western hostages Friday, a day before the deadline imposed by their kidnappers.

With an appeal during his sermon at the Abu Hanifa Mosque in the predominantly Sunni Arab neighborhood of Adhamiya, Moayed Adami joined a growing chorus calling for the release of the humanitarian workers -- an American, a Briton and two Canadians -- who were abducted Nov. 26.

He encouraged his congregation “to inform whomever has any influence, or to lend a helping hand [for] their release.

“Whoever shows virtue should be met and treated with virtue too.”

On Monday, a Muslim group that includes members of the militant organizations Hamas and Hezbollah called for “the immediate release of these four hostages and of all other Western civilians kidnapped in Iraq.”

The appeals of war protester Cindy Sheehan, whose son died in Iraq last year, and the wife of British hostage Norman Kember, 74, have been broadcast on Al Jazeera satellite television.

The Swords of Righteousness Brigade, a previously unknown group, has vowed to kill the four peace activists unless all Iraqi detainees are freed by today, according to an Internet statement. Their captives have been shown on TV wearing orange jump suits.

A militant group said Thursday that it had killed an American contractor, identified as Ronald Alan Schulz, because its demands had not been met, according to an Internet statement. The claim could not be verified.

If true, it would be the first known slaying of an American held by insurgents in 15 months.

Other Westerners also are missing. Gunmen abducted Bernard Planche, a French engineer, Monday in an upscale Baghdad neighborhood as he was leaving for work. The French government, which has advised its citizens to stay out of Iraq, said Planche did not have proper security.

A German archeologist and her Iraqi driver, abducted late last month, also remain missing. A group claiming responsibility has demanded that Germany stop cooperating with the Iraqi government.

Thousands of ordinary Iraqis have been kidnapped, mostly by criminal gangs demanding ransoms, since the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

A statement from the U.S. military said Friday that Marines in Ramadi had arrested a local leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq. It identified the man as Amir Khalaf Fanus, and said he also was known as “the Butcher.”

The military said Fanus, who was wanted on charges including murder and kidnapping, was the highest-ranking member of the group to be turned in by local Iraqis.

In Baghdad on Friday, talk among worshipers outside the Abu Hanifa Mosque focused on the national election, scheduled for Thursday.

Abu Ahmad, 46, said he didn’t vote in January, but he planned to this time.

“We are all going to participate in the elections,” he said, referring to the residents of his largely Sunni neighborhood. Many Sunnis boycotted the January vote for Iraq’s transitional National Assembly.

During Friday prayers in cities throughout Iraq, many clerics urged worshipers to vote.

“This is the last call,” Ali Alzand, a Sunni cleric, told followers at Baghdad’s Umm Qura Mosque. To avoid being marginalized again, Sunnis should vote as families, Alzand said.

One of the worshipers, Ahmed Hindi Mahmoud Alhiiti, a marble factory owner, said he feared fraud and violence on election day but would vote for one of the Sunni slates.

He said he had gotten Alzand’s message: “Your vote is a trust that you will be asked about on Judgment Day.”

Times staff writers Suhail Ahmad and Shamil Aziz in Baghdad contributed to this report.