Kidnappers released footage yesterday of eight Chinese hostages they threatened to execute unless Beijing "clarifies its role" in Iraq, but a Syrian Catholic archbishop was released a day after being captured. In a tape broadcast on TV networks and showing eight Chinese nationals holding up their passports guarded by two hooded men, the kidnappers charged the group had "worked with US forces in Iraq". "We ask the Chinese government to clarify its position toward those and other Chinese who have entered Iraq to help occupation forces," said one of them without identifying his organization.