28 June 2004	Monday	09 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

DUBAI, June 27: An armed group is holding a Pakistani hostage and has threatened to behead the captive within 72 hours unless prisoners are released in Iraq, a video footage aired by Al Arabiya television showed on Sunday.

The Dubai-based satellite news channel showed four hooded gunmen standing behind a man who was described as a Pakistani working in Iraq.

A member of the group, reading a statement, said they captured the Pakistani, who worked at a US base in Balad, 75 kilometres north of Baghdad, and threatened to kill him within three days unless local detainees were freed.

The Pakistani man was identified as Yousuf Amjad, an employee of the US contractor, Kellogg Brown and Root, a subsidiary of the Halliburton company which was once headed by US Vice-President Dick Cheney.-AFP