DUBAI, Nov 3: Al Qaeda’s branch in Iraq claims to have kidnapped a parliamentary candidate and her Iraqi army colonel husband. “Our brothers in the military branch of the Al Qaeda Organization in Mesopotamia on Tuesday captured Issam Khaza’al, a colonel in the Iraqi army, and his wife Majida Yussef Sael, a member of the consultative committee... and a candidate on Allawi’s list for the elections,” the group saif in a message posted on an Islamist website on Wednesday.

Former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has set up his own list to fight the December general elections, touting it as non-ethnic and non-secular and so better able to preserve the country’s unity.

The Al Qaeda group, led in Iraq by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said the couple were questioned then placed before an Islamic tribunal to decide their fate. The website included a photograph of an identity document from the army colonel.

In another statement, the group said it had executed an Iraqi named Falah Issa Zidane, who worked at a US military base.—AFP