A Marietta-area resident is among three men held in Iraq by a militant group threatening execution unless Iraqi women are released from two American-controlled prisons.

Jack Hensley, 48, is being held with another American and a Briton who work for Gulf Supplies & Commercial Services, a Bahrain-based construction firm working on rebuilding Iraq. They were abducted from their home in Baghdad on Thursday.

Associated Press (ENLARGE)
A video broadcast Saturday by Al-Jazeera shows captive Jack Hensley, 48, of Marietta, blindfolded but apparently uninjured, with a rifle pointed at the back of his head.
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Their whereabouts were unknown until a videotape was broadcast Saturday by Al-Jazeera television, which later revealed a claim that 10 other workers for another firm had been kidnapped.

Hensley's wife, Patty, did not talk with reporters gathered outside her Cobb County home Saturday, but in an interview with CNN she pleaded with her husband's captors to let him return to her and their 13-year-old daughter "who misses her father very much."

She said: "It is your decision if he can come home back to her. Jack is a simple, generous man who loves the Iraqi people and has made many friends while in Iraq. Since Jack has been a guest in your country, he has been treated with honor and dignity. We ask for your mercy in freeing Jack and his co-workers so that they can continue to return home to their loving families."

Patty Hensley said her last communication with her husband was by e-mail, and she said she believes he was abducted within about 45 minutes after they signed off.

She said his residence was guarded around the clock by armed Iraqis, but "the morning they were abducted there was no guard as there should have been."

She said the news that her husband is in grave danger has left her devastated. "We have a daughter that doesn't understand," Hensley told CNN.

"I've known the man 23 years. He's one of the kindest, gentlest people, who wanted to help. . . . He has no military affiliations. He's not there to fight. He's there to help the Iraqi people."

Other members of Hensley's family did not talk with reporters Saturday night. Police said the family was talking with government officials.

A Cobb County police car blocked the entrance to the cul-de-sac leading to the Hensleys' contemporary wood-frame home off Burnt Hickory Road in west Cobb County.

"It's to give them privacy and let the FBI do their job," said Mickey Lloyd, Cobb director of public safety. "It's a terrible situation for them."

Several dark-colored sedans sat outside the house. Neighbors said they had been instructed not to talk to the media. It was not clear whether the instructions were from the Hensley family or the FBI.

Public records indicate that Jack Hensley's mother lives with the family. Hensley is originally from Oklahoma.

The video involving Hensley and the other two men purportedly was from a militant group linked to al-Qaida. It shows a masked militant standing behind the three men, who were seated and appeared unharmed.

Al-Jazeera's announcer said the Tawhid and Jihad group led by alleged Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi threatened to kill the men if female Iraqi inmates were not released within 48 hours from the Abu Ghraib prison and a prison in the British-run port city of Umm Qasr.

The group kidnapped and beheaded American Nicholas Berg in May and is suspected in many high-profile attacks across Iraq during the past 17 months, including Tuesday's car bombing near a Baghdad police station that killed dozens of Iraqis applying for jobs.

The families of the other two hostages have publicly urged freedom for the men. FBI officials met Saturday with the family of the other American hostage, Eugene Armstrong, in the south-central Michigan town of Hillsdale.

"This has been a big shock," Armstrong's brother, Frank, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Minnta Davis, a cousin of Eugene Armstrong, said his work in construction took him around the world and that he had been living in Thailand with his wife before traveling to Iraq.

Davis said she recognized him in the video, which was rebroadcast on U.S. television.

"We only know what they're showing on television," Davis said. "We don't really know anything. It's kind of hard to say what you don't know. We just know there are just a lot of prayers for him."

In the videotape, each man is sitting on the floor, blindfolded, slightly bowed but apparently unharmed. They each give their names and in turn say, "My job consists of installing and furnishing camps at Taji base."

A rifle is pointed at the back of Hensley's head as he speaks.

The family of Briton Kenneth Bigley, 62, also urged his captors to free him.

Neighbors near the home the three men shared in Baghdad told the AP last week that the men kept to themselves. But, in a city plagued by frequent power outages, the men were well-known for a major act of generosity: letting their neighbors share the generator for free.

More than a dozen homes took up the offer.

"I heard they are kind people," said Abdul Jabbar Kadhim, 65. "This summer, the heat is unbearable and they are giving us electricity without anything in return."

The State Department said U.S. officials were working closely with Iraqi authorities to secure the release of the hostages.

The videotape showing the three men was broadcast by Al-Jazeera shortly before it revealed a fresh kidnapping claim. Another group claimed it had kidnapped 10 workers for an American-Turkish company and threatened to kill them in three days if their firm didn't leave Iraq.

About 120 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq, and many have been killed by their captors. Insurgents have carried out most of the kidnappings in a bid to drive foreign companies out of Iraq and thwart the U.S.-led reconstruction of the country.

Five other Western hostages are still missing, including two French journalists, two Italian aid workers and an Iraqi-American businessman.

— Staff writer Don Plummer and researcher Sharon Gaus contributed to this article.