New Ultimatum?
September 11, 2007
"We give the German government another 10 days to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, otherwise we'll slit [his] throat like a lamb," one of the kidnappers said in a video obtained by a US intelligence group Monday night.
The video shows 20-year-old Sinan Krause with his mother, Hannelore, who was also kidnapped with him on Feb. 6, but released on July 10 "for having converted to Islam." Hannelore Krause, who is married to an Iraqi doctor, has lived in the country for 40 years.
The captors had already issued a similar ultimatum threatening to kill both mother and daughter in March. Saying that it would not be blackmailed, the German government had rejected the demand to withdraw some 3,000 soldiers from Afghanistan.
A spokesman for Germany's foreign ministry on Tuesday said that a crisis team was still working on securing Krause's release. He added that the video was obviously filmed a while ago as Hannelore Krause is still seen in it.
"It's probably been posted on a Web site for a longer period," the spokesman said.