DOHA, July 29 (AFP) - Al-Jazeera television aired video footage Thursday of a Somali taken hostage in Iraq by followers of alleged Al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi threatening to decapitate him unless his Kuwaiti employer leaves the country within 48 hours.
The Qatari broadcaster named the Somali, abducted by Zarqawi's Tawhid wa al-Jihad (Unification and Holy War), as Ali Ahmad Mussa, a truck driver working for a Kuwaiti company in Iraq.
He is shown in the footage holding up an identity card. The report did not specify when he was kidnapped, nor the name of his employer.
Two Pakistani migrant workers taken hostage by a separate group were decapitated on Wednesday despite Islamabad's pleas for their release.
Militants led by Zarqawi, Al-Qaeda's alleged leader in Iraq, decapitated a South Korean hostage on June 22, after Seoul refused to back down on a decision to send 3,000 troop reinforcements to Iraq in August.
In mid-July the group also executed a Bulgarian truck driver, whose headless body was found floating in the Tigris river last week. The body of Georgy Lazov was flown home to Sofia overnight Wednesday.
An Islamist website has also published a photograph of a bloodied head it claimed to belong to another Bulgarian taken hostage by Zarqawi's men.
The United States is offering a 25 million dollar reward for information leading to Zarqawi's capture.