Baghdad, Iraq ? Kidnapped aid worker Margaret Hassan pleaded for her life in a tearful videotape Friday, saying she feared facing the same fate as British hostage Kenneth Bigley and others who have been beheaded by their captors.

The grainy video, aired on the Arabic-language television channel Al-Jazeera, increased pressure on British Prime Minister Tony Blair to pull his troops out of Iraq but also appeared to shake many Iraqis, who questioned how a 60-year-old foreigner who had opposed the American-led war and devoted half her life to improving the living conditions of ordinary Iraqis could be forced to beg for her life.

“Help me, please help me,” said a haggard and fearful-looking Hassan, director of the CARE humanitarian group’s Iraq office. “These might be my last hours. Please help me.”

The wrenching appeal came on a day that U.S. forces battled insurgents on the outskirts of Fallujha as part of a series of strikes to subdue the rebel stronghold before national elections scheduled for January.

In the northern city of Mosul, American soldiers were injured in the bombings of two armored vehicles. The attacks followed a showdown between Iraqi national guardsman and insurgents outside a mosque that was suspected of harboring guerrillas, according to a U.S. Army official.

The anguished tape of Hassan marked an escalation in the level of terror that hostage-takers have been able to inflict on foreign civilians in Iraq. More than 30 male hostages have been slain since April, and seven women had previously been taken hostage, all of whom were eventually freed.

Hassan’s abduction was condemned Friday by Iraqis who said it could backfire for her unidentified assailants.

“If Margaret Hassan will be killed, it will be the last straw that will break the camel’s back,” said Hassan Jameel, a Baghdad University political science professor. “This abduction distorts not only the reputation of the resistance, but it distorts even the reputation of Islam. We don’t accept this. We hope that these kidnappers will regain their sanity and release her immediately.”

Margaret Hassan, the kidnapped director of CARE International in Iraq, appears in this image made from television in a videotape aired by the Arabic television station Al-Jazeera. Hassan is seen weeping and pleading with British Prime Minister Tony Blair to withdraw troops from Iraq and

For Blair, the ordeal represents a political and moral dilemma. Having agonized over Bigley’s predicament but ultimately been unable to save him, Blair now faces another dramatic crisis just as Britain agrees to a U.S. request to redeploy 850 troops from Iraq’s relatively quiet south to an area of heavy fighting near Baghdad. The troop movement is intended to free U.S. troops for an offensive in Fallujah.