Hannelore Krause

Hannelore Marianne Krause (born April 14, 1945) is a German woman, living in Baghdad, Iraq, who was kidnapped by Iraqi militants on 6 February 2007. She was taken captive along with her 20-year old son, Sinan, who is also living in Iraq.

They were taken from their apartment in Baghdad by six men.

The demands of the kidnappers were for German officials to remove all troops from Afghanistan. On March 10 2007, a video was posted on an Internet site, depicting the kidnappers informing Hannelore that they would kill her son in front of her eyes if the German government didn't bring the troops back by March 20 2007.

On March 27 2007, American troops partook in a search for the two captured Germans in Baghdad, with fruitless results.

On April 3 2007, another video was posted on an Islamic website. In it, Hannelore begged the German government to bring back the 3000 German troops from Afghanistan in the next 10 days. Otherwise, Hannelore said, she and her son, Sinan, would be killed.

On July 11 2007, the German Foreign Minister said that after 155 days of imprisonment, Hannelore Krause had been released but Sinan Krause hasn't been seen or heard from since a video was released on September 11, 2007. The video was recorded before Hannelore was released. It showed Sinan saying goodbye to his mother.

External links

* BBC News: [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6290620.stm German mother 'released in Iraq'] , July 11, 2007