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| Kidnapped Britons on videotape | |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| The Foreign Office says it is studying a video tape issued by the kidnappers of five Britons held in Iraq. | The Foreign Office says it is studying a video tape issued by the kidnappers of five Britons held in Iraq. |
| The tape shows at least one of the hostages, and the Foreign Office says their families have been informed. | The tape shows at least one of the hostages, and the Foreign Office says their families have been informed. |
| The five Britons have been missing since they were taken in May. It is the first time the British Embassy in Baghdad has seen the video. | The five Britons have been missing since they were taken in May. It is the first time the British Embassy in Baghdad has seen the video. |
| Cobra, the UK government's emergency response team, last had a meeting about the missing five two weeks ago. | Cobra, the UK government's emergency response team, last had a meeting about the missing five two weeks ago. |
| The tape was broadcast on Al-Arabiya television. | The tape was broadcast on Al-Arabiya television. |
| The Britons - four guards and a computer expert - were kidnapped by Iraqi criminals disguised in police uniforms who initially took them to a Shia suburb. | |
| In the tape, filmed in front of a banner with a Shia emblem and dated 18 November, the kidnappers demand the withdrawal of British forces within 10 days - a deadline which has passed. | |
| They do not make specific threats about what they would do if there was no withdrawal. | |
| BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said that, up until now, the Foreign Office has not wanted to discuss the kidnapping because officials do not want anything to get in the way pf their negotiations through third parties to get the men released. | |
| The kidnap had been carried out by one of the Shia militia groups in Iraq, our correspondent added. |