Al Jazeera has broadcast a video of two German engineers taken hostage in Iraq. As reported earlier on The Jawa Report, the names of the two German hostages are Thomas Wischke and Rebiti Drata (transliterated from Arab reports). Their correct names are Thomas Nitzschke and Rene Braeunlich. We will link to the video as soon as we find it. Please e-mail us via the Contact link above if you have any information on the video.

Al Jazeera:

Two German hostages held in Iraq have appealed to their government to help secure their release, in a video aired by Aljazeera.

The two German engineers, who disappeared in northern Iraq on Tuesday, were shown on their knees in front of four kidnappers on the video shown by the television station on Friday.

The tape was dated 24 January, the day they were abducted in the northern industrial city of Beiji, about 240km north of Baghdad.

The hostages, identified by relatives as Thomas Nitzschke and Rene Braeunlich, arrived in Iraq on 22 January.

The German Foreign Ministry said the two only planned to remain in Iraq "for a short time".

They were working for a German company which has a commercial relationship with an Iraqi government-owned detergent company.

In Berlin, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German Foreign Minister, said on Friday that contact had been established with the kidnappers.

"The first contact was made by the kidnappers," Steinmeier told RTL television.

He described the pictures as "shocking".

Earlier, Gernot Erler, the Deputy Foreign Minister, told ARD television that a ministry crisis unit "is working constantly to save the two engineers."

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