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U.S. Soldier Held Prisoner By Iraqi Resistance
BAGHDAD, April 17 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Al-Jazeera television broadcast late Friday, April 16, a videotape showing a U.S. soldier held prisoner by Iraqi resistance fighters, who offered trading him for prisoners in the hands of occupation forces. "My name is Keith Matthew Maupin," the soldier said while sitting on the floor, surrounded by masked armed fighters, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP). The family of the soldier has confirmed his identity, reported The New York Times. Wearing a desert camouflage uniform and floppy hat, the American soldier said he was married and father to a 10-month child. One of the fighters said the prisoner is being treated in line with Islam and he is in good health". "We are keeping him to exchange him for some of our detainees," held by the U.S.-led occupation forces, he added. In the video, the young soldier seemed to be constantly looking at the ground and away from the camera. The translator then said the soldier had come to Iraq to "liberate" it, and did not wish to be there as he preferred staying with his child. A U.S. Central Command official said Aljazeera gave the tape to U.S. embassy personnel in the Qatari capital and is being analyzed, adding the man on the tape might have been one of two missing soldiers. Captain Bruce Frame told AFP that the pair have been unaccounted for since the attack on a fuel convoy last week near Fallujah. No mention was made of the other missing U.S. soldier, Sgt. Elmer C. Krause, 40, of Greensboro, N.C. Maupin and the other missing soldier are assigned to the Army Reserve's 724th Transportation Company. Seven U.S. employees of Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), a subsidiary of the energy and oil services giant Halliburton, also went missing in the resistance attack. |
