Osama links hostage fate to French pullout

Jan 22, 2011 |

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Dubai, Jan. 21: Osama Bin Laden said the release of two French hostages in Afghanistan depends on a pullout of their country’s soldiers, warning Paris of a “high price” for its policies, in a taped broadcast on Friday.

“We repeat the same message to you: The release of your prisoners in the hands of our brothers is linked to the withdrawal of your soldiers from our country,” said the speaker on the audiotape broadcast on Al-Jazeera television.

A cameraman, Mr Stephane Taponier, and a reporter, Mr Herve Ghesquiere, who work for France 3 public television, were seized along with three Afghan colleagues in December 2009, in an area northeast of Kabul.

The Al Qaeda chief, addressing the French people, said: “The refusal of your President to withdraw from Afghanistan is the result of his obedience of America and this refusal is a green light to kill your prisoners. But we will not do this at a timing that suits him,” he said, adding the warning that the French President, Mr Nicolas Sarkozy’s stand would “cost him and you a high price on different fronts.”

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