Threat to kill Jordanian hostage

Sajida al-Rishawi has made an apparent confession on television

Kidnappers holding a Jordanian in Iraq say he will die in three days unless a failed bomber is freed by Jordan.

A video aired by satellite channel al-Arabiya shows Mahmoud Sulaiman reading a statement saying he will die unless Sajida al-Rishawi is freed.

She attempted to help her husband bomb a Jordanian hotel last month, but her device apparently failed to detonate.

Mr Sulaiman, who works as a driver for the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad, was seized on Tuesday.

The video shows Mr Sulaiman sitting on the ground, surrounded by armed men with automatic guns and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

A banner in the background bears the name of a previously unknown group calling itself the Hawk Brigades.

The video also demands that Amman cut its ties with Baghdad.

"I ask the Jordanian government to withdraw its diplomatic mission from Iraq and not to deal with this illegitimate government [in Baghdad]," Mr Sulaiman said.

Deadly attacks

Last month's suicide attacks in Jordan, which killed nearly 60 people, were carried out by Sajida al-Rishawi's husband and two other men.

They targeted three hotels, including one where a wedding reception was under way.

Mrs Rishawi, an Iraqi, was later detained, and appeared on Jordanian television describing how she attempted to take part in the attack, but her suicide belt failed to detonate.

The threat to kill Mr Sulaiman came as the family of British hostage Norman Kember made a fresh appeal for his release in a series of radio and newspaper adverts in Iraq.

Mr Kember, from Pinner, was seized in Baghdad on 26 November by another unknown group calling itself the Swords of Truth.