http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Kidnappers-quiet-as-deadline-passes/2005/05/10/1115584934394.htmlA man with influential ties to Iraq’s Sunni tribes has commended Australia’s approach in trying to secure the release of kidnapped Australian Douglas Wood.
The comments came as the deadline set by the kidnappers of the 63-year-old engineer for the Howard government to pull Australian troops out of Iraq passed at 0500 AEST today.
Nothing has since been heard.
In footage released on Saturday, Mr Wood was shown shaven, beaten and pleading for government help as he relayed his captors’ demands for the troop withdrawal.
In a last-ditch bid to save Mr Wood’s life, his family yesterday offered a generous charitable donation to the Iraqi people as means of showing their empathy with the citizens of the war-torn nation.
Australia’s Islamic spiritual leader, Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali, who is carrying the Wood family offer to Iraq, is due to arrive in Dubai this morning before flying to Jordan and then travelling by road to Baghdad.
Sheik Alhilali, the Mufti of Australia, is hoping for a two-day extension of a 72-hour deadline set at the weekend by Mr Wood’s captors.
Former chief adviser on Iraqi affairs to Jordan’s King Hussein, General Ali Shukri, today said the approach to try to communicate with the kidnappers through the Sunni tribal leaders was the right one.
“A bunch of … the tribal leaders must be engaged – especially as we are coming to the deadline,” General Shukri told ABC radio.
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