Al-Qaeda claims holding US hostage in Pakistan
03 December, 2011
ISLAMABAD: Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri claims that they are holding hostage a US development worker kidnapped in Pakistan four months ago, according to an online statement seen by monitors.
Warren Weinstein, 70, country director for US-based consultancy JE Austin Associates, was snatched after gunmen tricked their way into his home on August 13, days before he was due to return to the United States.
Zawahiri claimed responsibility and demanded that Washington end air strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen, and release the 1993 World Trade Centre bombers and relatives of Osama bin Laden, to secure Weinstein's release.
"Just as the Americans detain all whom they suspect of links to al-Qaeda and the Taliban, even remotely, we detained this man who has been neck-deep in American aid to Pakistan since the 1970s," the SITE Intelligence Group quoted Zawahiri as saying in a 31-minute video sent to Jihadist forums.
The video showed no proof of life for Weinstein, but the message appears to be the first significant lead in the case in weeks. A spokeswoman for the US embassy in Islamabad said officials there had seen the statement. "Investigations are still ongoing. We're in regular contact with the family," she told AFP.
Courtesy: The News
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