BAGHDAD (AP):A UNITED States Muslim advocacy group arrived in Baghdad on Saturday to plead for the release of American hostage Jill Carroll, while an Iraqi official urged American forces to free six detained Iraqi women in a bid to save the journalist.
A deadline set by kidnappers, who threatened to kill Carroll unless U.S. forces released all Iraqi women in military custody, passed late Friday with no word on her fate.
A delegation from the Council on American-Islamic Relations flew to Baghdad from neighbouring Jordan in a bid to drum up momentum for Carroll's release. The 28-year-old was abducted Jan. 7 in a tough west Baghdad neighbourhood.
VERY HOPEFUL
"We are the only people who have come from outside of Iraq to call for Jill's release, and we are very hopeful they will hear our message on behalf of American Muslims," Nihad Awad, the group's executive director said at Baghdad International Airport. "Harming her will do (the kidnappers) no good at all. The only way is to release her."
Also Saturday, Deputy Justice Minister Busho Ibrahim Ali said Iraqi authorities have asked U.S. authorities to release six of the nine Iraqi women in U.S. military custody.
"I am making some contacts with the American side to hasten their release, because this action might help hastening the release of the kidnapped journalist," Ali told The Associated Press.
Ali said he expected the detained women to be freed Monday or Tuesday, though he stressed their releases were not being arranged as part of an exchange for Carroll.
The U.S. military, which has confirmed it has nine Iraqi women in detention on suspicion of terrorism-related activities, has declined to comment on whether any were soon to be freed.
