Militants Order Australia to Withdraw (from Iraq)

[paineinthearse]

Militants Order Australia to Withdraw

Militants Order Australia to Withdraw

Friday May 6, 2005 5:46 PM

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Militants holding an Australian engineer hostage have issued a 72-hour ultimatum for Australia to start pulling troops out of Iraq, Arab television station al-Jazeera reported Friday. The station did not specify what the militants were threatening to do if their deadline was not met, but a number of previous hostages have been killed.

Douglas Wood, 63, a California resident who has an American wife, was shown in a video released May 1 pleading for U.S.-led coalition forces to leave Iraq to save his life. Prime Minister John Howard has ruled out paying any ransom or meeting demands to withdraw Australian troops from Iraq. But he said the government would do all it can to secure Wood's freedom.

Australia contributed 2,000 troops to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and about 300 remain in Iraq.