The vicar working on the release of five Britons held hostage in Baghdad has fled Iraq because of what has been described as “a serious security threat”.
Canon Andrew White, who last week said he was warned by a member of al-Qaeda months ago about the nature of the failed terror attacks in London and Glasgow, today announced that he had left the country because of fears for his safety.
It has been reported that the kidnappers of the five Britons threatened to kill them unless Canon White, who works at the last Anglican church in Iraq, stopped trying to find out where they were.
Unconfirmed reports in the London-based newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi website said that pamphlets, dropped in Shia areas of Baghdad, demanded his immediate departure from Iraq and said he was no more than a spy.
The British Embassy in Baghdad confirmed that the vicar had been working on the release of the five Britons taken hostage last month, who “are his friends” ane he had decided to leave Iraq because of the threat.
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Rosie Tapper, the British Embassy spokeswoman in Baghdad, could not disclose the nature of the threat, or the circumstances in which Canon White left the country.
Miss Tapper said Canon White did not work for or represent the British Government, “He is a religious leader, he’s been speaking during his visits to various religious leaders with a view to ensuring the safety of the hostages,” she said. “He has left because he believes it to be in the interests of his safety. He has left because of a serious security threat and for a number of reasons”
The Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East, of which Canon White is Executive Director, said: “Due to a serious security threat Canon Andrew White has left Iraq.” They could not say if he would be returning.
The five Britons were kidnapped in one of the most brazen abductions of Westerners since the fall of Saddam Hussein. The captives are a consultant working for BearingPoint, an international firm providing technical and computer advice to the Iraqi Government, and four security guards employed by GardaWorld, a Canadian-owned company which, for its Middle East contracts, has offices in London and Hereford -the home of the SAS.
They were taken in daylight in May by dozens of armed insurgents dressed in the fatigues of Iraqi police commandos.
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Last month Dominic Asquith, British Ambassador to Iraq, appealed for their release, saying he was “greatly concerned” about them.
Speaking Arabic he told reporters: “I ask those holding them to release them so they may return to their families.” He added: “The British Government’s policy on these matters is clear and well known. We do not condone these actions.
“We have people here in Iraq who are ready to listen to any person about this incident, or any person who may be holding these men and who may wish to communicate.”
Different theories are circulating about who is behind the kidnappings, with Iraqi Government officials blaming the Shia Mahdi Army, while others say that it could be a group linked with Iran. Another possibility is an extremist Sunni gang.
A senior Iraqi official said that he did not believe that there had been contact with the abductors, whatever their identity. Kidnapping has become a popular political tool for insurgent groups intent on pressurising the US-led coalition to leave Iraq and on undermining the Iraqi Government.
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British diplomats have held urgent talks with the Iraqi authorities to establish the sequence of events that led to the snatch which happened at 11.40am local time at a building located outside the heavily protected international green zone.