Al Jazeera Airs Hostage Video

Updating a previous report, the kidnappings in Iraq from the past several days include a naturalized American, born in Iraq, named Mohammed Monaf. It's still unknown who the kidnappers are. In any event, confirmation of the abductions came via an Al Jazeera airing of a video showing Mr. Monaf and the three Romanian journalists, Marie Jeanne Ion, Sorin Dumitru Miscoci, and Edward Ovidiu Ohanesian. Two kidnappers are also seen in the video, pointing machine guns at the hostages.

According to The Jawa Report, the Romanian media are aware of ransom demands. However, whether the kidnappers are terrorist thugs looking to fund insurgent activities or common everyday thugs is not known.

From a Romanian website, Nine o'Clock, Foreign Affairs Minister Mircea Geoana appealed to the Arab world in an interview on Al Jazeera for the safe release of the hostages. Also, according to Al Jazeera, one of three groups is most likely responsible for the abductions. To wit:

According to these three variants, it can be a "recognised" terrorist organisation, therefore known for this type of actions to which it resorts in order to create a political pressure in coalition countries; a less famous group, who wants to enter these events' "market" and build a name for itself in Iraq, using a foreign pretext for this kind of publicity; or Iraqi groups that are dealing with the kidnapping of foreign citizens, including journalists, trying to get a substantial ransom in order to reach their economical and criminal purposes, Mircea Geoana explained.

"I suspect in the first stage, we will reach an unofficial contact formula, through specialised information services channels or through natural means and I feel certain we will have information about our colleagues; we are all praying for them to be in good health and come back so that we can be together again," Mircea Geoana said.

Although the Romanian government has kept a lid on media coverage by enforcing a "law of silence," word has leaked that three negotiators left Bucharest yesterday to negotiate for the release of the hostages.