Suspects held over Margaret Hassan abduction

A number of suspects have been detained over the abduction of aid worker Margaret Hassan, feared killed last year, the US military said today.

Iraqi forces backed by the US military recovered a number of articles apparently related to Ms Hassan, the director of CARE international in Iraq, during an early morning raid south of Baghdad, the British and US Embassy said.

A number of suspects were apprehended, US military spokesman Major Darryl Wright said. No further details were provided.

Hassan, 59, who held Irish, British and Iraqi citizenship, was kidnapped on her way to work in Baghdad on October 19. Her captors later issued videos showing her pleading for British Prime Minister Tony Blair to withdraw troops from Iraq and calling for the release of female Iraqi prisoners.

On November 16, the Arab satellite television station Al-Jazeera said it had received a video showing a hooded militant shooting a blindfolded woman in the head. British officials said they believed the woman in the video was Hassan, and her family said they believed she was dead.

However, no body has been recovered.

Hassan had lived in Iraq for 30 years and was married to an Iraqi. She was renowned for her work distributing food, medicine and supplies to Iraqis suffering under the sanctions of the 1990s.