“Militants,” they call them. The group calls itself “The Holders of the Black Banners.” The article doesn’t tell you this, but the black banner is the standard of jihad. These people have taken these hostages as part of their jihad against non-Muslims and secular Muslims.
How long will we pretend that we can fight against an enemy without naming him? How long will we delude ourselves into thinking that we can ignore who the enemy is and where and how he gains strength, and still defeat him?
From AP:
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraqi militants said Saturday they kidnapped two Turks and threatened to behead them within 48 hours, the latest in the country’s unrelenting wave of abductions, even as efforts intensified to win the release of seven truck drivers taken captive by other insurgents.
The Tawhid and Jihad group of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi demanded the Turks’ employers leave Iraq in a videotape aired on Al-Jazeera television, which showed three masked, black-garbed gunmen standing behind two seated men holding various forms of identification, including what were apparently Turkish passports.
Al-Jazeera identified the men as two Turkish truck drivers working for a Turkish company that delivers goods to U.S. forces in Iraq. The network said the militants threatened to decapitate the men if their demands were not met….
The kidnappers have threatened to kill one of the hostages if their employers, Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Co., fail to meet their demands, including ending their work in Iraq.
The group, which calls itself “The Holders of the Black Banners,” had said they would carry out their threat by Friday night, but they had extended their deadlines repeatedly in the past and appeared to have done so again.