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Al-Qaeda claims responsibility for kidnapping U.S. citizen

02 December 2011 02:40 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al- Zawahiri has claimed responsibility for the capture of a 70-year- old U.S. citizen in Pakistan, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The man, Warren Weinstein, is a development expert who did contract work for U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) . He was abducted in Aug. 13 from his home in Lahore, Pakistan.

According to SITE, al-Zawahiri said that just as the United States detain all whom they suspect of links to al-Qaeda and the Taliban, al-Qaeda has "detained" Weinstein who is "neck-deep in American aid to Pakistan since the seventies."

The al-Qaeda leader also listed demands that needed to be met before he would release Weinstein. The demands included the ending of airstrikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen. He also demanded release of prominent prisoners jailed for terrorist crimes, including Abu Musab al-Suri, the "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdul Rahman, Ramzi Yousef, Sayyid Nosair, as well as the family of Osama bin Laden.

Weinstein works for J.E. Austin Associates Inc., a U.S. consulting firm which has contracts with USAID. He is a world- renowned development expert, with 25 years of experience, according to his company’s website. He has worked in Pakistan for several years and spoke Urdu.

The company has said that Weinstein is in poor health and provided a detailed list of medications, imploring the kidnappers to provide for him.

According to press accounts, on the day of his abduction, Weinstein’s security guards were preparing for the meal before the Ramadan fast, three men knocked at the front gate and offered food, local police were quoted as saying. The men then overpowered the guards and forced Weinstein’s driver to disclose where Weinsteins’ room was. They then abducted Weinstein and drove off in a waiting car.

Media reports also said that Pakistani police have arrested three suspects linked to the kidnapping of Weinstein. But police and the U.S. government have not said who they believed to have kidnapped Weinstein.