By Lee Keath, Associated Press, 4/16/2004 16:47
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) The Arab television station Al-Jazeera aired footage Friday showing a 20-year-old U.S. soldier captured by insurgents, apparently unharmed and surrounded by five masked men holding automatic rifles.
The soldier, wearing camouflage and a floppy desert hat, is shown sitting on the floor as he identifies himself.
''My name is Keith Matthew Maupin. I am a soldier from the 1st Division,'' he is heard saying in the video. ''I am married with a 10-month-old child. I came to liberate Iraq, but I did not come willingly because I wanted to stay with my child.''
Maupin, of Batavia, Ohio, and another soldier, Sgt. Elmer C. Krause, 40, of Greensboro, N.C., were listed as missing after their convoy was attacked April 9 outside Baghdad, amid a wave of kidnappings targeting foreigners. Both soldiers were assigned to the Army Reserve's 724th Transportation Company, based at Bartonville, Ill.
He is the second American and first U.S. serviceman known to be kidnapped by insurgents fighting the U.S.-led coalition since the end of war.
Maupin looked scared and glanced downward occasionally during the tape. The gunmen, their faces covered by keffiyeh scarves, stayed behind him, in contrast to footage aired on Al-Jazeera last week of three Japanese hostages in which their kidnappers held knives to their throats as they screamed. The Japanese, two aid workers and a journalist, were freed unharmed.
On the tape, one of the gunmen was heard saying: ''We are keeping him to be exchanged for some of the prisoners captured by the occupation forces.''
''Some of our groups managed to capture one of the American soldiers, and he is one of many others. He is being treated according to the treatment of prisoners in the Islamic religion and he is in good health,'' the gunman said.
Earlier Friday, three Czech journalists and a Syrian-Canadian aid worker were freed by their captors and new kidnappings were reported of a man from the United Arab Emirates and a Danish businessman, the latest in a wave of abductions accompanying violence in Iraq.
The Arab man was pulled from his hotel by gunmen disguised as police in the southern city of Basra on Thursday night, according to Iraqi police official Col. Khalaf al-Maliki and the hotel's owner.
The victim was carrying a passport from the United Arab Emirates that had U.S. travel stamps in it, leading to incorrect early reports that he was American, al-Maliki said.
The three Czechs had been missing since Sunday after checking out of their hotel to leave for Jordan by taxi.
''We all are in good condition,'' reporter Vit Pohanka told Czech Radio from the Czech Embassy in Baghdad, speaking along with Czech Television reporter Michal Kubal and cameraman Petr Klima.
After being held northwest of Baghdad, the Czechs were brought to the outskirts of the city Friday, and took a taxi to the Czech Embassy, Pohanka said.
Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin said in Toronto that Iraqi militants have released a Syrian-Canadian aid worker Fadi Fadel, who was abducted in the southern city of Najaf on April 7.
The Syrian-born Fadel, 33, talked to his family in Montreal on Friday.
''He said, `Hi mom. I'm out. I'm coming back. I'm OK,''' Roueida Fadel told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.'s French language network. Her son had been working for the New York City-based International Rescue Committee.
A Chinese citizen also was released Friday, two days after being taken captive, said Muthanna Harith, a member of the Islamic Clerics Committee, the highest Sunni organization in Iraq. There had been no public reports of the Chinese man being taken.
The clerics' committee had also successfully helped free three Japanese civilians Thursday. That same day, however, an Italian security guard was killed in captivity.
The Danish Foreign Ministry did not identify the Dane who was reported kidnapped.
''A Danish national likely is being held back in Iraq,'' the Danish Foreign Ministry said in a statement from Copenhagen. ''No Iraqis or Iraqi groups have contacted Danish authorities.''
Danish television station DR-1 reported that the victim was a businessman in his 30s working on a sewage project in Iraq. The man was traveling from Basra to Baghdad when he was taken captive in Taji, 20 miles north of Baghdad, DR-1 said.
Denmark, which backed the U.S.-led war to oust Saddam Hussein, has 410 troops in Basra and nearby Qurnah, 250 miles southeast of Baghdad. There are also a dozen Danish police officers in Basra.
Around two dozen foreigners have been abducted in the past week. The kidnappings have coincided with intense violence around the country and most are believed to have been carried out by anti-U.S. insurgents.
At least 17 foreigners, according to an Associated Press count, remain unaccounted for following a wave of abductions that accompanied the worst violence Iraq has seen since the U.S.-led invasion on March 20, 2003.
American experts are working to determine whether four bodies discovered west of Baghdad were the remains of private U.S. contractors missing since the April 9 convoy attack.
One of the missing Thomas Hamill, a 43-year-old truck driver from Mississippi is known to have been abducted.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) The Arab television station Al-Jazeera aired footage Friday showing a 20-year-old U.S. soldier captured by insurgents, apparently unharmed and surrounded by five masked men holding automatic rifles.
The soldier, wearing camouflage and a floppy desert hat, is shown sitting on the floor as he identifies himself.
''My name is Keith Matthew Maupin. I am a soldier from the 1st Division,'' he is heard saying in the video. ''I am married with a 10-month-old child. I came to liberate Iraq, but I did not come willingly because I wanted to stay with my child.''
Maupin, of Batavia, Ohio, and another soldier, Sgt. Elmer C. Krause, 40, of Greensboro, N.C., were listed as missing after their convoy was attacked April 9 outside Baghdad, amid a wave of kidnappings targeting foreigners. Both soldiers were assigned to the Army Reserve's 724th Transportation Company, based at Bartonville, Ill.
He is the second American and first U.S. serviceman known to be kidnapped by insurgents fighting the U.S.-led coalition since the end of war.
Maupin looked scared and glanced downward occasionally during the tape. The gunmen, their faces covered by keffiyeh scarves, stayed behind him, in contrast to footage aired on Al-Jazeera last week of three Japanese hostages in which their kidnappers held knives to their throats as they screamed. The Japanese, two aid workers and a journalist, were freed unharmed.
On the tape, one of the gunmen was heard saying: ''We are keeping him to be exchanged for some of the prisoners captured by the occupation forces.''
''Some of our groups managed to capture one of the American soldiers, and he is one of many others. He is being treated according to the treatment of prisoners in the Islamic religion and he is in good health,'' the gunman said.
Earlier Friday, three Czech journalists and a Syrian-Canadian aid worker were freed by their captors and new kidnappings were reported of a man from the United Arab Emirates and a Danish businessman, the latest in a wave of abductions accompanying violence in Iraq.
The Arab man was pulled from his hotel by gunmen disguised as police in the southern city of Basra on Thursday night, according to Iraqi police official Col. Khalaf al-Maliki and the hotel's owner.
The victim was carrying a passport from the United Arab Emirates that had U.S. travel stamps in it, leading to incorrect early reports that he was American, al-Maliki said.
The three Czechs had been missing since Sunday after checking out of their hotel to leave for Jordan by taxi.
''We all are in good condition,'' reporter Vit Pohanka told Czech Radio from the Czech Embassy in Baghdad, speaking along with Czech Television reporter Michal Kubal and cameraman Petr Klima.
After being held northwest of Baghdad, the Czechs were brought to the outskirts of the city Friday, and took a taxi to the Czech Embassy, Pohanka said.
Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin said in Toronto that Iraqi militants have released a Syrian-Canadian aid worker Fadi Fadel, who was abducted in the southern city of Najaf on April 7.
The Syrian-born Fadel, 33, talked to his family in Montreal on Friday.
''He said, `Hi mom. I'm out. I'm coming back. I'm OK,''' Roueida Fadel told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.'s French language network. Her son had been working for the New York City-based International Rescue Committee.
A Chinese citizen also was released Friday, two days after being taken captive, said Muthanna Harith, a member of the Islamic Clerics Committee, the highest Sunni organization in Iraq. There had been no public reports of the Chinese man being taken.
The clerics' committee had also successfully helped free three Japanese civilians Thursday. That same day, however, an Italian security guard was killed in captivity.
The Danish Foreign Ministry did not identify the Dane who was reported kidnapped.
''A Danish national likely is being held back in Iraq,'' the Danish Foreign Ministry said in a statement from Copenhagen. ''No Iraqis or Iraqi groups have contacted Danish authorities.''
Danish television station DR-1 reported that the victim was a businessman in his 30s working on a sewage project in Iraq. The man was traveling from Basra to Baghdad when he was taken captive in Taji, 20 miles north of Baghdad, DR-1 said.
Denmark, which backed the U.S.-led war to oust Saddam Hussein, has 410 troops in Basra and nearby Qurnah, 250 miles southeast of Baghdad. There are also a dozen Danish police officers in Basra.
Around two dozen foreigners have been abducted in the past week. The kidnappings have coincided with intense violence around the country and most are believed to have been carried out by anti-U.S. insurgents.
At least 17 foreigners, according to an Associated Press count, remain unaccounted for following a wave of abductions that accompanied the worst violence Iraq has seen since the U.S.-led invasion on March 20, 2003.
American experts are working to determine whether four bodies discovered west of Baghdad were the remains of private U.S. contractors missing since the April 9 convoy attack.
One of the missing Thomas Hamill, a 43-year-old truck driver from Mississippi is known to have been abducted.
