Margaret Hassan in video appeal for release
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-10-22 22:50

British-Iraqi hostage Margaret Hassan made an emotional appeal for British forces to withdraw from Iraq, in a videotape broadcast on Arabic television channel Al Jazeera on Friday.

A video grab image shows British-Iraqi hostage Margaret Hassan making an emotional appeal for British forces to withdraw from Iraq in a videotape broadcast an Arabic television channel October 22, 2004. "Please help me, please help me," Hassan, who works for aid agency Care International, was shown saying while crying. She said she could face the same fate as British hostage Kenneth Bigley, who was decapitated by his captors earlier this month. [Reuters]

A video grab image shows British-Iraqi hostage Margaret Hassan wiping her face as she makes an emotional appeal for British forces to withdraw from Iraq in a videotape broadcast by an Arabic television channel October 22, 2004. [Reuters]

A file photo of Margaret Hassan. [AFP]

"Please help me, please help me," Hassan, who works for aid agency Care International, was shown saying while crying. "This might be my last hour."

"Please, the British people, ask Mr. Blair to take the troops out of Iraq and not to bring them here ... That's why people like Mr. Bigley and myself are being caught," she said, referring to British hostage Kenneth Bigley, who was decapitated by his captors earlier this month.

"I don't want to die like Bigley," Irish-born Hassan appealed, before burying her head in her hands in tears.

Al Jazeera did not say how it obtained the tape, nor name the group holding Hassan, who has lived in Iraq for 30 years and also has Iraqi citizenship. She was kidnapped in Baghdad on Tuesday.

Care International is one of the world's largest independent global relief and development organizations and works in Iraq on primary health care and water projects.

Dozens of foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq. At least 32 have been killed.

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