Two Months After Abduction: Little News, But Hope Remains

By: Joe Strupp On the two-month anniversary of freelancer Jill Carroll's abduction in Iraq, little new information on her whereabouts or status is known, according to editors at the Christian Science Monitor, her employer at the time of her kidnapping.

Despite a new video shown on Arab television today of three peace activists who were kidnapped in Iraq last year, no new images of Carroll, 28, have been seen. The last image of her appeared in a video last month.

"We are not aware of any changes in Jill Carroll's situation," Monitor Editor Richard Bergenheim said in a statement today. "Today our hearts go out to the three Christian Peacemaker activists shown in the video broadcast today on Arab television. We hope the fourth member of the team, who was not shown, is safe and well."

The fourth member in the group is the lone American, Tom Fox.

Captors who abducted Carroll in Baghdad at gunpoint on Jan. 7 have set several deadlines for their demands to be met or she would face death. The last deadline was Feb. 26, which passed without any indication of her situation.

Since her abduction, which occurred in an incident in which her translator was killed, three videos showing Carroll in captivity have been released, along with demands that all women Iraqi prisoners be released. Iraq's interior minister has said he believes Carroll is alive and is being held by the Islamic Army.

In the weeks since the initial demand, U.S. and Iraqi officials have released five women who had been held in Iraq, but continue to hold at least three others.

Reporters Without Borders, an international journalists group based in Paris, launched an awareness campaign last month that included the distribution of badges to journalists in New York, Washington, and London that included the phrase "Free Jill Carroll."

The group noted her kidnapping again today with a release promoting tomorrow's International Women's Day and calling again for her release along with six other women journalists imprisoned in Cuba, Ethiopia, Iran, Maldives, Nepal and Rwanda.