BAGHDAD — German Chancellor Angela Merkel appealed Tuesday for the release of one of her compatriots abducted a day earlier in Iraq, the ninth foreigner kidnapped since Saturday.
The abductee, 43-year-old archeologist and activist Susanne Osthoff, was kidnapped Monday with her Iraqi interpreter. A video still broadcast Tuesday on German television showed her blindfolded and surrounded by gunmen.
Also Tuesday, Al Jazeera satellite television aired an insurgent video showing four Western hostages seated cross-legged on the floor. The video is dated Sunday and bears the insignia of a group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness Brigade. No audio was broadcast, but the channel said the tape contained a declaration condemning the four men as "spies of the occupation forces."
The hostages are activists with the Christian Peacemaker Teams organization. The U.S.-based group said the four had been abducted Saturday in Baghdad and it identified them as Tom Fox, 34, of Clearbrook, Va.; Norman Kember, 74, of London; and James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, both of Canada.
In addition to the five Westerners and Iraqi interpreter, four Iranian religious pilgrims seized Monday remained missing.
The sudden surge in kidnapping comes after a comparative lull. Abductions of foreigners were frequent through the end of last year, but tapered off as many non-Iraqis left the country and those who stayed adopted more stringent security measures. Irish journalist Rory Carroll was abducted in October but released unharmed after 36 hours.
Carroll's kidnapping was viewed as an isolated incident perpetrated by Shiite Arab militiamen. But the new spate of abductions indicates that Sunni Arab insurgents once again are targeting foreigners living outside Baghdad's highly fortified Green Zone.
Iraqi national security advisor Mowaffaq Rubaie said the rapid development of Iraqi security forces had prompted insurgents to focus on "soft targets."
"They don't need a lot of planning, don't need a lot of intel. They don't need explosives" to commit a kidnapping, he said.
More than 200 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. At least 50 have been executed.
The Iranian hostages were among a group of six Shiite religious pilgrims ambushed Monday near the town of Balad, about 50 miles north of the capital, the Interior Ministry said.
