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Two German engineers kidnapped this week in northern IRAQ urged Berlin to secure their release in a videotape broadcast Friday by an Arabic TV channel, BBC reported.
The video showed the two Germans, identified as Nitzschke and Rene Braeunlich, sitting on the floor with at least four gunmen standing behind them.
The hostages were seen speaking but not heard, and the Arabic channel said the kidnappers didn’t make any demands beyond the German’s appeal to their government to work for their release.
The timer shown on the tape indicated it was filmed at 10:08 a.m. Jan. 24, less than two hours after the Germans were abducted in the northern city of Baiji, 180 km north of Baghdad.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier described the video as “shocking” and announced that Berlin contacted the kidnappers.
"Contact with the kidnappers has been made. We cannot say anything in detail about the [kidnap] group," Mr Steinmeier said, adding that Germany would "do everything it can to free" the men.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel denounced the kidnapping and said "we appeal urgently to the perpetrators to release our two compatriots without delay".
The government "condemns this cruel kidnapping in the strongest possible terms", she said.
The German government has set up a crisis team to secure the release of the two men, but says it hasn’t made contact with their captors.
The kidnapping follows the release of Susanne Osthoff, a German archaeologist who was seized in northern IRAQ in November.
German officials say media reports that a ransom had been paid to her kidnappers have encouraged the latest abduction.
Berlin insists that it doesn’t pay ransoms to free German hostages.
At least 40 Westerners and hundreds of Iraqis are being held hostage in IRAQ, including U.S. journalist Jill Carroll and Four Christian aid workers.
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