Kuwait City
February 9, 2006


US journalist Jill Carroll has appeared in a video aired on a private Kuwaiti TV channel appealing for her supporters to do whatever her Iraqi kidnappers want to secure her release.

"I am here. I am fine. Please just do whatever they want, give them whatever they want as quickly as possible," Carroll says.

Carroll appeared in the black-and-white video wearing an Islamic veil, sitting in a chair in front of a wall with a large floral design.

She spoke to the camera in a firm voice, without weeping.

Saying she was speaking on February 2, Carroll asked for her captors' wishes to be granted.

"There is a very short time. Please do it fast. That's all."

The video was aired on Al Rai TV, a private Kuwaiti channel, unlike two previous videos of Carroll issued by her captors, which were handed over to the more widely watched Al-Jazeera.

The video was delivered earlier today to Al Rai's Baghdad office, Hani al-Srougi, an editor at the station's headquarters in Kuwait, said.

It was accompanied by a letter written by Carroll, which the station is holding.

In the tape, Carroll mentions the letter and suggests that her captors issued a letter in her handwriting previously.

"I am with the mujahadeen (holy warriors). I sent you a letter written by my hand, but you wanted more evidence, so we are sending you this letter now to prove I am with the mujahadeen," she said.

The 28-year-old, who worked freelance for The Christian Science Monitor, was abducted on January 7 in Baghdad.

Her captors, calling themselves the Revenge Brigades, demanded the release of all Iraqi women prisoners held in US and Iraqi jails.

On January 17, Al-Jazeera aired a video released by the Revenge Brigades showing Carroll - her head bare, and her long straight brown hair parted in the middle, setting a January 20 deadline for the demands to be met or she would be killed.

The deadline passed with no word on her fate until a new video appeared on Al-Jazeera on January 30, showing Carroll - now in an Islamic veil - weeping and speaking to the camera.

She appealed again for the Iraqi female prisoners' release, Al-Jazeera reported.

In Baghdad, a US Embassy spokesman Dennis Culkin said American authorities routinely do not comment on tapes especially before they have been authenticated.

- AP