Crowd gathers at courthouse in Mississippi town
Monday, April 12, 2004 Posted: 12:12 AM EDT (0412 GMT)

MACON, Mississippi (CNN) -- Family and friends of the American civilian contractor kidnapped in Iraq held a vigil Sunday in his Mississippi hometown.
Thomas Hamill was kidnapped Friday. His abductors demanded that U.S. forces withdraw from the Iraqi city of Fallujah by 10 p.m. Saturday ET, but since then there has been no word on his fate.
Throughout Sunday, friends and relatives stopped by the family home to offer their support. Police kept the gathered media at bay, as the family remained in seclusion and made no public comment.
Hamill, 43, a truck driver in Iraq for Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, was shown being held captive by masked gunmen in video broadcast Saturday by the Australian Broadcasting Corp. (Full story)
The Arabic-language TV network Al-Jazeera also broadcast footage of Hamill in front of an Iraqi flag, in which a man, apparently one of the abductors, set he Fallujah deadline and threatened Hamill with harsh treatment if there was no ullout.
There has been a spate of kidnappings in Iraq during the past week, including three Japanese, a group of Chinese taken hostage Sunday and a Briton who was eleased Sunday.
Hamill, a father of two, is from Macon, a town of about 2,500 near the Alabama border, about 60 miles north of Meridian. He is a former dairy farmer who went o Iraq to work as a truck driver, Mayor Dorothy Hines said. She said his wife, ellie, runs the local 911 system.
Hines said she spoke to Kellie, who asked the public for their prayers. She recently underwent heart surgery while her husband was away, the mayor said.
On Sunday night, townspeople gathered at the Noxubee County Courthouse for the vigil. On Monday, they plan to put up yellow ribbons.
Halliburton, though not confirming details surrounding the abduction, released a statement Saturday saying it was monitoring the situation and would "continue to work closely with coalition authorities regarding the safety and security of all our personnel in the region."
"We are all concerned about the recent incidents in Iraq, and when hostilities intensify, we revise and step up our precautions in support of our security efforts," the statement said.
"Civilian contractors work side-by-side with the military and Iraqi people. Our work is difficult and in a dangerous environment, and we are deeply saddened by the loss of colleagues."
A representative from Kellogg, Brown & Root visited the Hamill home Sunday but did not comment to the media.
CNN's Justine Redmond contributed to this report

　次へ 　前へ

Ψ空耳の丘Ψ34掲示板へ

フォローアップ:

　

　

　

拍手はせず、拍手一覧を見る

---

★登録無しでコメント可能。今すぐ反映　通常 ｜動画・ツイッター等 ｜htmltag可（熟練者向）
（タグCheck ｜タグに'だけを使っている場合のcheck ｜checkしない）（各説明）

（←ペンネーム新規登録ならチェック）
↓ペンネーム（2023/11/26から必須）

↓パスワード（ペンネームに必須）

（ペンネームとパスワードは初回使用で記録、次回以降にチェック。パスワードはメモすべし。）
↓画像認証
（ 上画像文字を入力）
ルール確認＆失敗対策
画像の URL (任意):

投稿コメント全ログ 　コメント即時配信 　スレ建て依頼 　削除コメント確認方法

---

★阿修羅♪　http://www.asyura2.com/ 　since 1995
　題名には必ず「阿修羅さんへ」と記述してください。
掲示板,ＭＬを含むこのサイトすべての
一切の引用、転載、リンクを許可いたします。確認メールは不要です。
引用元リンクを表示してください。