- BAGHDAD (Reuters) -- An Egyptian
Friday became the first diplomat known to have been seized in a wave of
hostage-taking in Iraq, in which militants have pressed demands to undermine
U.S.-led forces and the interim government.
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- Al Jazeera broadcast a video tape of Mohamed Mamdouh
Qutb, whom it described as the number three in Egypt's embassy in Baghdad,
sitting in front of six masked men from a group calling itself the "Lions
of God Battalions in Iraq."
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- "The group said the abduction was in response to
comments by Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif that Egypt is ready to
offer its security experience to the temporary Iraqi government,"
the Arabic television station said.
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- In Cairo, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit
"affirmed that Egypt sending any forces or military personnel to Iraq
was not a matter that has been proposed at all," the official news
agency MENA reported.
-
- Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi discussed possible
Egyptian training of Iraqi forces on a visit to Cairo that ended Friday
but Egyptian officials said repeatedly there was no question of sending
any forces to Iraq.
-
- Kidnappers have seized dozens of foreigners since April
to demand foreign troops leave Iraq, deter foreigners from working with
U.S. forces or extract ransoms. Many have been freed, but some have been
killed.
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- U.S. TROOPS VITAL FOR SECURITY
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- Allawi's government relies heavily on some 160,000 mostly
U.S. foreign troops for security while it builds its own forces.
-
- In another hostage standoff, a group which has threatened
to behead seven foreign captives issued a new 48-hour deadline to the Kuwaiti
company that employs them and demanded Iraqi prisoners be freed from Kuwaiti
and U.S. jails.
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- Al Jazeera showed a video tape of a masked man from the
Black Banners group reading a statement in front of the seven men -- three
Indians, three Kenyans and an Egyptian.
-
- "(The group) said the company must pay compensation
to the families of the dead in Falluja and Iraqi prisoners in American
and Kuwait jails should be released," Al Jazeera said.
-
- U.S. strikes on the rebellious Iraqi city of Falluja
over the past month have killed about 40 people.
-
- The hostages' employer, the Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport
Company, said earlier it would not meet the kidnappers' original demand
that the firm cease operations in Iraq.
-
- Wednesday, the kidnappers threatened to start beheading
the drivers from Saturday unless the company pulled out of Iraq.
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- India, Kenya and Egypt are not part of U.S.-led forces
but many of their nationals work as drivers and contractors.
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- SOME BOW TO MILITANTS' DEMANDS
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- The new hostage standoffs occurred days after an Egyptian
was freed following a pledge from his Saudi employer to stop doing business
in Iraq and a Filipino trucker was released when Manila withdrew its small
military contingent a month early.
-
- The United States and the interim government criticized
the Philippines, saying it was giving in to terrorism.
-
- A senior United Nations official said progress in Iraq's
political transition could help to stop kidnappings.
-
- "As it becomes more inclusive, more and more Iraqis
will understand the stake they have in the success of this transition process,"
the new U.N. head of mission in Iraq, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, told reporters
in Washington.
-
- But Washington and Allawi blame foreign Islamic militants
as well as Iraqi supporters of Saddam Hussein for kidnappings and guerrilla
attacks.
-
- U.S. forces mounted an air strike on Falluja Friday in
the latest of a series of such raids targeting suspected guerrillas led
by Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, accused by Washington of having
links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda.
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- The U.S. military did not say if anyone was killed, but
said the raid was mounted in coordination with Allawi's government.
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- FALLUJA RESIDENTS SAY FIVE WOUNDED
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- Residents in Falluja, some 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad,
said at least five people were wounded, two of them children.
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- Zarqawi's group has claimed responsibility for many suicide
attacks and the beheadings of an American, a South Korean and a Bulgarian.
Another Bulgarian seized by the group is feared to have been killed.
-
- Bulgaria, which has 470 troops serving with U.S.-led
forces, has pledged to stay as long as necessary in Iraq.
-
- Gunmen assassinated Brigadier General Salim Blaish, a
senior member of Iraq's fledgling armed forces, as he traveled to Friday
prayers in the northern city of Mosul, police said.
-
- - Additional reporting by Andrew Hammond in Dubai, Jonathan
Wright in Cairo, Fadel Badran in Falluja, and Luke Baker, Andrew Marshall,
Mariam Karouny and Dean Yates in Baghdad
-
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