Seraphim
07-24-2004, 02:58 AM
http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20040724/capt.ny11307240314.iraq_ny113.jpg
Airman 1st Class Garey Watson and Staff Sgt. Ronnie Phipps, 407th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron, stand guard at Tallil Air Base, Iraq (news - web sites), July 20, 2004. (AP Photo/ U.S. Air Force photo, Staff Sgt Craig Clapper)
By RAVI NESSMAN, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi insurgents issued brash new challenges to the country's interim government, capturing an Egyptian diplomat as he walked out of a mosque and making new demands for the release of seven hostages that will almost certainly go unmet.
The separate developments Friday suggested the insurgents are growing bolder, particularly since terrorists scored a stunning victory by getting the Philippines to withdraw its 51-member peacekeeping contingent to save the life of a hostage. Angelo dela Cruz returned home Thursday.
Militants kidnapped Mohammed Mamdouh Helmi Qutb outside a mosque and demanded his country abandon any plans to send security experts to support Iraq (news - web sites)'s new government, according to a video broadcast on the Al-Jazeera television station. He was believed to be the first foreign diplomat kidnapped in Iraq.
Only days earlier, Qutb had embraced freed Egyptian truck driver Alsayeid Mohammed Alsayeid Algarabawi, who was released by militants Monday.
The abduction threatened to undermine efforts of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (news - web sites) on Thursday to persuade Arab and Muslim countries to provide troops to protect the U.N. mission here.
The black-clad militants, calling themselves "The Lions of Allah Brigade," claimed they abducted Qutb because Egypt said it was prepared to deploy security experts to help Iraq's interim government, according to Al-Jazeera. No specific threat against Qutb was mentioned.
Egypt has offered to train Iraqi police and security personnel in Egypt but declined to deploy military forces in Iraq.
In the video — narrated by a news reader — Qutb was seated in front of six masked men, some holding rifles. He said he was being treated well, adding that the Egyptian mission in Baghdad was not cooperating with the U.S.-led multinational force but only trying to aid Iraq's reconstruction.
While Egyptians have shown sympathy for countrymen who went to Iraq to work and ended up held hostage, the kidnapping of a diplomat was likely to focus public attention on their government's policies here. Many Egyptians and other Arabs extoll Iraqis fighting Allawi's U.S.-backed government as freedom fighters and accuse their own governments of siding with hated America against Arabs.
A different militant group holding seven foreign truck drivers, including one Egyptian, announced new demands in a video Friday, insisting that their Kuwaiti employer pay compensation for those killed by U.S. forces in the city of Fallujah. They have threatened to begin beheading the hostages starting Saturday.
In the new video, broadcast on Al-Jazeera, the group called for the release of all Iraqi detainees in Kuwaiti and U.S. prisons, and calling on the drivers' Kuwaiti employer to compensate relatives of people killed in Fallujah.
The new demands were almost certain to go unmet, but the tape Friday — also narrated by the news reader — did not appear to repeat the beheading threat and bore no other specified ultimatum. The militants gave the company a 48-hour deadline, but it was unclear that meant the initial deadline was extended until Sunday.
The men's employer, Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport, Co., told The Associated Press it was working to secure their release. "Negotiations are ongoing with the kidnappers ... and we are optimistic the kidnappers will release them soon," Rana Abu-Zaineh, the company's manpower planning manager, told AP by telephone.
She declined to say how the company was conducting negotiations or disclose what it was prepared to do to secure the hostages' release. Earlier in the week, the company said it would do whatever was necessary.
A group calling itself "The Holders of the Black Banners" released videos Wednesday and Thursday saying it was holding three Kenyans, three Indians and an Egyptian and would behead one every 72 hours starting Saturday night if the Kuwaiti trucking company they work for did not stop doing business in Iraq and their countries did not withdraw their citizens.
The beheading of hostages has stirred opposition in Iraq, with radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who led a two-month uprising against U.S. forces beginning in April, joining the criticism.
"We condemn what some people are doing regarding the beheading of prisoners, and it is illegal according to Islamic law," al-Sadr said at the Kufa mosque south of Baghdad, where he led Friday prayers. "Anybody doing this is a criminal, and we will punish him according to Islamic law."
Al-Sadr's word carries weight with many in the country's Shiite majority but is essentially meaningless to the Sunni Muslims believed responsible for many of the kidnappings and killings.
Militants in recent months have kidnapped roughly 70 foreigners in their campaign to force countries to withdraw troops and to scare away contractors working on reconstruction projects. At least three hostages have been beheaded.
Airman 1st Class Garey Watson and Staff Sgt. Ronnie Phipps, 407th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron, stand guard at Tallil Air Base, Iraq (news - web sites), July 20, 2004. (AP Photo/ U.S. Air Force photo, Staff Sgt Craig Clapper)
By RAVI NESSMAN, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi insurgents issued brash new challenges to the country's interim government, capturing an Egyptian diplomat as he walked out of a mosque and making new demands for the release of seven hostages that will almost certainly go unmet.
The separate developments Friday suggested the insurgents are growing bolder, particularly since terrorists scored a stunning victory by getting the Philippines to withdraw its 51-member peacekeeping contingent to save the life of a hostage. Angelo dela Cruz returned home Thursday.
Militants kidnapped Mohammed Mamdouh Helmi Qutb outside a mosque and demanded his country abandon any plans to send security experts to support Iraq (news - web sites)'s new government, according to a video broadcast on the Al-Jazeera television station. He was believed to be the first foreign diplomat kidnapped in Iraq.
Only days earlier, Qutb had embraced freed Egyptian truck driver Alsayeid Mohammed Alsayeid Algarabawi, who was released by militants Monday.
The abduction threatened to undermine efforts of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (news - web sites) on Thursday to persuade Arab and Muslim countries to provide troops to protect the U.N. mission here.
The black-clad militants, calling themselves "The Lions of Allah Brigade," claimed they abducted Qutb because Egypt said it was prepared to deploy security experts to help Iraq's interim government, according to Al-Jazeera. No specific threat against Qutb was mentioned.
Egypt has offered to train Iraqi police and security personnel in Egypt but declined to deploy military forces in Iraq.
In the video — narrated by a news reader — Qutb was seated in front of six masked men, some holding rifles. He said he was being treated well, adding that the Egyptian mission in Baghdad was not cooperating with the U.S.-led multinational force but only trying to aid Iraq's reconstruction.
While Egyptians have shown sympathy for countrymen who went to Iraq to work and ended up held hostage, the kidnapping of a diplomat was likely to focus public attention on their government's policies here. Many Egyptians and other Arabs extoll Iraqis fighting Allawi's U.S.-backed government as freedom fighters and accuse their own governments of siding with hated America against Arabs.
A different militant group holding seven foreign truck drivers, including one Egyptian, announced new demands in a video Friday, insisting that their Kuwaiti employer pay compensation for those killed by U.S. forces in the city of Fallujah. They have threatened to begin beheading the hostages starting Saturday.
In the new video, broadcast on Al-Jazeera, the group called for the release of all Iraqi detainees in Kuwaiti and U.S. prisons, and calling on the drivers' Kuwaiti employer to compensate relatives of people killed in Fallujah.
The new demands were almost certain to go unmet, but the tape Friday — also narrated by the news reader — did not appear to repeat the beheading threat and bore no other specified ultimatum. The militants gave the company a 48-hour deadline, but it was unclear that meant the initial deadline was extended until Sunday.
The men's employer, Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport, Co., told The Associated Press it was working to secure their release. "Negotiations are ongoing with the kidnappers ... and we are optimistic the kidnappers will release them soon," Rana Abu-Zaineh, the company's manpower planning manager, told AP by telephone.
She declined to say how the company was conducting negotiations or disclose what it was prepared to do to secure the hostages' release. Earlier in the week, the company said it would do whatever was necessary.
A group calling itself "The Holders of the Black Banners" released videos Wednesday and Thursday saying it was holding three Kenyans, three Indians and an Egyptian and would behead one every 72 hours starting Saturday night if the Kuwaiti trucking company they work for did not stop doing business in Iraq and their countries did not withdraw their citizens.
The beheading of hostages has stirred opposition in Iraq, with radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who led a two-month uprising against U.S. forces beginning in April, joining the criticism.
"We condemn what some people are doing regarding the beheading of prisoners, and it is illegal according to Islamic law," al-Sadr said at the Kufa mosque south of Baghdad, where he led Friday prayers. "Anybody doing this is a criminal, and we will punish him according to Islamic law."
Al-Sadr's word carries weight with many in the country's Shiite majority but is essentially meaningless to the Sunni Muslims believed responsible for many of the kidnappings and killings.
Militants in recent months have kidnapped roughly 70 foreigners in their campaign to force countries to withdraw troops and to scare away contractors working on reconstruction projects. At least three hostages have been beheaded.