Four western hostages labelled "spies of the occupation" were shown in a video aired today as a spate of abductions took Iraq back to the dire security conditions foreigners faced from hostage-takers last year.
The four aid workers - two Canadians, a Briton and an American - were shown in the tape broadcast by Al Jazeera television three days after they were snatched in west Baghdad.
The grainy video from a previously unknown group calling itself the "Swords of Truth" brigades showed four men sitting cross-legged on the ground. It appeared to carry Sunday's date stamp and had crossed swords in the top right-hand corner.
The organisation accused the men of being "spies working for the occupying forces" under the guise of working for a Christian group. Al Jazeera did not say if the tape included a threat against the men's lives.
The four men work for Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), one of the few remaining aid groups operating in Iraq.
The video showed the passport of 74-year-old Briton Norman Kember, a retired professor and life-long peace activist who has been identified by the British Foreign Office.
The group said the names of the other hostages were withheld for their security.
"Our members accompany family members looking for missing relatives to talk to American military forces and Iraqi government officials," CPT spokeswoman Jessica Phillips said in Chicago.
The tape of the hostages emerged on the same day that another group issued video of it holding a German archaeologist and her driver hostage. They disappeared in Baghdad on Friday.