STOCHOLM, Feb 13 (AFP) - An unidentified group that has claimed responsibility for the kidnap of an Iraq political leader has called for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq in return for his release, his family said Sunday.
Minas Ibrahim al-Yussufi, secretary general of the Christian Democratic Party of Iraq and who holds Swedish citizenship, recently telephoned his family in Sweden to give them his kidnappers' demands.
"They are demanding the departure of US troops in Iraq, with a calendar for their withdrawal, and that the United Nations take over," his daughter, Ronak, said on the public Swedish television channel SVT.
Yussufi was kidnapped on January 28 after he took a taxi to party headquarters in Mosul, according to fellow party members.
He called his family on February 6 and said he was being held by 15 armed men.
The family had earlier received a text message on February 1 from Yussufi's mobile phone in which an unidentified group said they had kidnapped him "for his own good, so that nothing will happen to him".
The Swedish foreign ministry said its embassy in Amman was looking into the matter.
Yussufi, whose family has lived in Sweden since 1984, returned to Iraq after the fall of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to partake in politics.
02/13/2005 18:09 GMT - AFP