Kidnappers Threaten to Kill Us Hostage

Kidnappers threatened to kill the abducted US journalist Jill Carroll unless the Bush administration ordered the release of Iraqi women prisoners within 72 hours, according to a report on al-Jazeera television yesterday.

The station broadcast a brief, silent video in which the 28-year-old freelance reporter for the Christian Science Monitor appeared to be speaking directly to camera. An accompanying message gave the ultimatum on prisoners, a producer for the network said.

Carroll was abducted this month in Baghdad on her way to meeting Adnan al-Dulaimi, a Sunni Arab political leader. She was kidnapped with her driver in the Adel district. Her translator, Allan Enwiyah, was killed. The identity of her abductors is unknown and the al-Jazeera producer said no militant group's name was on the message that arrived at the station. The US state department said officials were doing all they could to get Carroll released. "We continue to make every effort we can, working with Iraqis and others, to see Miss Carroll is returned safe and sound," spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Carroll's family pleaded with her abductors to release her, in a statement released by the Boston-based newspaper on Tuesday. "Jill is an innocent journalist and we respectfully ask that you please show her mercy and allow her to return home to her mother, sister and family," the statement said.

Insurgents in Iraq have kidnapped more than 240 foreigners and killed at least 39 of them. There has been a spate of kidnappings of westerners over the past few months. British peace activist Norman Kember, 74, from Pinner, north London, was kidnapped on November 26 with three other Christian peace workers. Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, and an American, Tom Fox, 54, were working without escorts in Baghdad when they were taken.

It also emerged yesterday that Italian prosecutors plan to charge a US soldier with murder and attempted murder after an investigation into the shooting last year of an Italian secret service agent at a checkpoint in Iraq.

Agent Nicola Calipari was killed by US gunfire near the checkpoint on March 4. He was driving to Baghdad airport in a car with an Italian journalist, Giuliana Sgrena, who had been released after being held hostage by militants.