Prime Minister John Howard said hopes were growing yesterday that claims an Islamic militant group had kidnapped and was threatening to execute two Australians in Iraq may be a hoax.
The foreign ministry, which has been struggling to account for all Australians in Iraq since the claim was made on Monday, said it had located all but eight of the 229 nationals known to be in Iraq by yesterday afternoon.
But a foreign ministry spokeswoman warned that "the number is fluid" and the kidnap claim could not yet be ruled out.
A group calling itself the Horror Brigades of the Islamic Secret Army released a leaflet late Monday saying it had seized two Australians and two Asians from a convoy near the town of Samarra and would execute them unless Australia withdrew its forces from Iraq within 24 hours.
The deadline passed overnight with no further word.
Howard noted that the group had released no names or photographs of the hostages to back up their kidnap claim and that no authorities in Iraq had reported attacks on a convoy near Samarra on Monday.
"I suppose, as each hour goes by, you grow cautiously more hopeful, but I don't think we should think that it still may not be true," Howard said, adding, "I just don't know. I hope it's not [true], we all hope and pray it's not."
A hoax or not, the incident sparked a political dispute in Australia Thursday in the run-up to national elections on Oct. 9.
Howard's government ordered a special hostage rescue team to Iraq late on Monday in case the kidnap claim proved true. The opposition Labor Party, which is running neck-and-neck in opinion polls with Howard's coalition, protested that under caretaker rules in place during an election campaign, the government was required to consult with it before taking such a policy decision.
"The truth is that if Labor is elected in three and a half weeks' time, we would be in charge of the operation," said party leader Mark Latham.
"So isn't it in Australia's national interest to ensure the alternative government is consulted, given the information and involved from day one about this important decision?" he said.
He went on to accuse Howard of "putting political interests ahead of national interests."
"It's part of a pattern of incompetence of this government," Latham said.
Howard called Labor's complaint "petty."
"The caretaker convention requires you to consult the opposition if you are making a new commitment or proposing a new policy," he said. "It does not require you to talk to them every minute of the day."
Howard provided 2,000 troops to last year's US-led invasion of Iraq and about 850 Australian soldiers remain in the region. Australia's presence in Iraq has become a key election issue with Latham vowing to bring the troops home if he wins the election.
Latham, backed by a number of current and former defense offi-cials, has asserted that Australia's involvement in Iraq has made the country more of a target for terrorists -- a claim Howard has rejected.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese