• Home
• World
• AP - Middle East

(AP)  BAGHDAD (AP) - Al-Qaida's umbrella group in Iraq has threatened to kidnap family members of Iraqi politicians and ministers unless the wife and children of its slain leader are released from prison.

The Islamic State of Iraq, as the terror network's affiliate is known, demanded in a message posted Tuesday on militant websites that Abu Ayyub al-Masri's family be released.

It purports that the wife and children have been in custody since the joint U.S.-Iraqi air and ground assault near Saddam Hussein's hometown Tikrit in April that killed al-Masri.

Authorities have reported their detention but there has been no word on their whereabouts since.

Al-Qaida says that unless al-Masri's family is freed, it will kidnap "wives, daughters and sons" of Iraqi politicians and ministers.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.