Deadline passes for kidnapped journalist

BAGHDAD, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- The deadline given by kidnappers of U.S. journalist Jill Carroll in Iraq passed Friday with no word on her fate.

Carroll, 28, was abducted Jan. 7 in Baghdad. Her captors threatened Tuesday to kill her unless the U.S. military released all female Iraqi prisoners within 72 hours.

Carroll's father appealed to her kidnappers Friday to free her and "use Jill to be your voice to the world."

"I want to speak directly to the men holding my daughter Jill because they may also be fathers like me," Jim Carroll said in a statement that aired on the Arabic-language network al-Jazeera. "My daughter does not have the ability to free anyone. She is a reporter and an innocent person. Do not sacrifice an innocent soul."

CNN said Arab satellite channels aired a news conference held Friday in which Adnan Dulaimi, head of the General Conference of the Iraqi People, called on the kidnappers to release Carroll in the name of God.

Bryan Whitman, a senior Pentagon spokesman, said Friday fewer than 10 female Iraqi prisoners were in U.S. custody, and he was unaware of any plan to release them in response to the kidnappers' threat. U.S. policy is not to negotiate with kidnappers.