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Australian contractors kidnapped in Iraq

Posted by Tiglath (Guest) davidchibo@hotmail.com - Tuesday, September 14 2004, 15:05:15 (CEST) from 203.173.0.198 - 203-173-0-198.dyn.iinet.net.au Australia - Windows XP - Internet Explorer Website: Website title:

Australian contractors kidnapped in Iraq Militants also threaten to kill Italian women held hostage Luke Harding in Baghdad Tuesday September 14, 2004 The Guardian Two Australian security contractors yesterday became the latest foreigners to be kidnapped in Iraq after militants apparently ambushed their convoy on a road outside Baghdad. In a statement, a group calling itself the Islamic Secret Army said it would execute both men "without a second chance" unless their government pulled its troops out of Iraq within 24 hours. The group said it had seized the Australians, together with two east Asian nationals, in the town of Samarra, a Sunni militant stronghold effectively in the hands of the insurgents. Last night the Australian government said its diplomats were investigating the report, which comes ahead of a general election in the country early next month. "We are aware of the report and our embassy in Baghdad is investigating," a spokesman for the department of foreign affairs and trade in Canberra said. The security contractors appear to have been seized while driving from the northern city of Mosul on a road that most foreigners consider too risky to use. "One of our brave brigades ambushed civilian cars belonging to the American army on the motorway from Baghdad to Mosul," the statement said. "It took four prisoners, two Australians and two east Asian nationals who were working as security contractors for important people. "We tell the infidels of Australia that they have 24 hours to leave Iraq or the two Australians will be killed without a second chance." The abductions are the latest in a string of recent kidnappings in Iraq which have provoked panic among the few remaining westerners in the country. Most foreigners have left, and the only civilians now in Baghdad are a dwindling band of journalists and diplomats. Advertiser links Internaxx, International Investing Internaxx offshore broker. Real-time access to major stock... internaxx.lu Trade Your Own Foreign Currency Account Invest in the global foreign exchange markets with Gci. Try... gcitrading.com Welcome to ING Direct Our hassle free, no catches savings account offers everyone... ingdirect.co.uk Yesterday the Italian foreign minister, Franco Frattini, pleaded for the release of two female Italian aid workers, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, 29, who were seized last week by gunmen in Baghdad. The Islamic Jihad organisation that appears to be holding them yesterday said it would execute them within 24 hours unless Italy pulled its troops out of Iraq - the same demand now being made of Australia. Mr Frattini's plea appears to stand little chance of success - not least because it was made from neighbouring Kuwait, rather than Iraq itself. The kidnappings yesterday came as another militant group released a video of a Turkish hostage having his head cut off. In the tape from Tawhid and Jihad, a group inconclusively linked to the Jordanian al-Qaida militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Durmus Kumdereli, a driver, said he had been captured while delivering goods to a US base in Mosul. He urged other transport companies and drivers "not to aid the occupiers". Masked men then beheaded the driver, above a black screen reading "the execution". Elsewhere there was more carnage yesterday after US planes pounded the Sunni town of Falluja, the target of numerous American attacks in recent days. Adel Khamis of the town's general hospital said the US bombing killed at least 16 people, including women and children. At least 12 others were injured, he said. A shell also hit an ambulance retrieving wounded from the scene, killing the driver, a para- medic and five patients, an official, Hamid Salaman, said. "The conditions here are miserable - an ambulance was bombed, three houses destroyed and men and women killed," the hospital's director, Rafayi Hayad al-Esawi, told the Al-Jazeera television channel. The US military claimed the strikes were against terrorists responsible for attacks against Iraqi civilians. US forces pulled out of Fallujah in April after ending a three week siege that left hundreds dead and a trail of devastation. The US marines have not patrolled inside Fallujah since then and Sunni insurgents have strengthened their hold on the city. "This strike further erodes the capability of the Zarqawi network and increases safety and security throughout Iraq," a US military statement said yesterday. The attacks followed a day of violence in Iraq on Sunday, which saw at least 78 people killed and heavy fighting in the centre of Baghdad, ominously close to the international zone housing the US embassy and Iraq's pro-American interim government. Yesterday's kidnappings of the Australians came after a suicide car bombing killed nine people and injured 182 outside the country's embassy in Jakarta last week. The group that carried out the Indonesian bombing, Jemaah Islamiyah, said that more attacks would follow unless Australia pulled its 850 troops out of Iraq. Australia's Conservative prime minister, John Howard, was a staunch supporter of the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq last year. He has repeatedly clashed with the centre-left opposition Labour leader, Mark Latham, who has promised to bring Australian troops home by Christmas if he wins the election. · Faced with mounting violence in Iraq, the Bush administration plans today to propose shifting $3.46bn (£1.92bn) from Iraqi water, power and other reconstruction projects to improve security, boost oil output and prepare for elections scheduled for January. Of the more than $18bn approved for Iraq's reconstruction, only about $1bn has been spent so far. --------------------- - BACK TO INDEX - REPLY - QUOTE - EDIT - DELETE -

The full topic: And then there was 1..... Tiglath - Tuesday, September 14 2004, 14:00:13 (CEST) Australian contractors kidnapped in Iraq Tiglath - 09/14 15:05 Re: Australian contractors kidnapped in Iraq parhad - 09/14 15:39

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