The abduction of the first German woman in Iraq shows that Germany is threatened by terrorism, said German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble Wednesday.

Schaeuble told a German newspaper Die Weltsaid Susanne Osthoff's abduction "shows that we in Germany are also threatened by international terrorism."

The 43-year-old Osthoff was kidnapped with her driver on Friday and is the first German kidnapped in Iraq.

In a video delivered by the kidnappers to a public TV station in Baghdad, the kidnappers requested the German government to stop cooperating with the Iraqi government and threatened to kill the hostages otherwise.

According to German media, the terrorists intended to send a message to the new government of Chancellor Angela Merkel not to cooperate with the United States or with the government in Baghdad.

The German government has indicated it will not give in to the kidnappers to cease cooperation with the Iraqi government, according to the German press agency Deutsche Press-Agentur.

Osthoff is a archaeologist who has been working in Iraq for years and is fluent in Arabic. She married to an Iraqi and has an 11-year-old daughter.

Source: Xinhua