MIDDLE EAST:A little-known Islamist group claimed responsibility in an audio recording yesterday for abducting the BBC's Gaza correspondent, issuing demands immediately rebuffed by the Palestinian government.
As evidence that it is holding correspondent Alan Johnston, the group posted a photo of his BBC identification card on the internet.
The posting appeared to be the first tangible evidence that Mr Johnston, who disappeared on March 12th while driving his car in the Gaza Strip, had been kidnapped.
Mr Johnston has been held captive longer than any of the other foreign journalists who have been seized and subsequently released by gunmen in Gaza.
"We demand that Britain free our prisoners, particularly the honourable Sheikh Abu Qatada al-Filistini," said a speaker on the audio recording, posted on the internet by a group that calls itself the "Jaysh al-Islam" (Army of Islam).
The BBC had no comment on the group's demands, while describing the claim of responsibility as encouraging.
"We, of course, welcome any sign that Alan may be alive and well. We profoundly hope that today's news may be a sign that Alan will soon be safely released," said Mark Byford, the BBC's deputy director-general, in a statement.
Abu Qatada, a radical Islamic cleric suspected of close links to al-Qaeda, has been described by the British government as a "significant international terrorist".
He is one of more than a dozen Arab men whom Britain has been holding under detention or house arrest as threats to national security, while at the same time acknowledging it does not have sufficient evidence to put them on trial.
The Special Immigration Appeals Commission in London ruled in February that Abu Qatada could be deported to Jordan, where he has been convicted twice in absentia of involvement in terrorist plots, despite the likelihood he would face a flawed trial.