BAGHDAD, Iraq – Al-Jazeera television aired a videotape Tuesday of two German hostages, and the station said the kidnappers demanded Germany close its embassy here and stop cooperating with the Iraqi government.
The last tape showing the Germans appeared on Jan. 27 on Al-Jazeera and was dated Jan. 24, the day they were abducted in the northern industrial city of Beiji.
The brief tape Tuesday showed Thomas Nitzschke and Rene Braeunlich seated on the floor in front of a group of armed men. Al-Jazeera said the previously unknown group, the Tawhid and Sunnah Brigade, demanded the German government close its embassy in Baghdad, withdraw all the German companies from Iraq and to stop cooperation with the Iraqi government.
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