WASHINGTON, Jan 21: As a deadline set by kidnappers threatening to kill US journalist Jill Carroll in Iraq passed, a mainstream US Muslim group sent a delegation to Baghdad on Saturday to try and secure her release.

Although the deadline passed on Friday, so far there is no word on the fate of the 28-year old journalist abducted on Jan 7 in a Baghdad neighborhood.

“We are the only people who have come from outside of Iraq to call for Jill’s release and we are very hopeful they will hear our message on behalf of American Muslims,” said Nadi Awad, executive director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has sent a two-member delegation to Iraq.

The CAIR is an umbrella organization representing Muslim groups across North America.

A videotape sent by Ms Carroll’s kidnappers, a group calling itself the Revenge Brigade, was aired on Tuesday by Arab TV network station Al Jazeera, which said her captors threatened to kill her unless US forces freed all Iraqi women in military custody within 72 hours.

In Baghdad, Iraqi officials said that six Iraqi women detainees the US forces are holding were to be freed in the coming days. A minister said Iraqi authorities have asked the US Army to release six of the nine women.