An Australian citizen has been taken hostage in Iraq, according to a video tape delivered by militants to news agencies today.
On the two-minute video, the blond-haired man identifies himself as Douglas Wood, a 63-year-old who lives in California and is married to an American. He appeals to US, Australian and British authorities to withdraw from the country.
"I don't want to die," he says on the tape, which shows him sitting on the floor as two masked man armed with assault rifles stand to either side.