Six More Hostages Taken in Iraq
VOA News
21 Jul 2004, 15:53 UTC
A militant group in Iraq has taken six foreign truck drivers hostage and has threatened to behead one every 72 hours if their countries do not withdraw all their nationals from Iraq.
In video sent to news organizations, masked gunmen are seen with the hostages - two Kenyans, three Indians and one Egyptian. The kidnappers also demanded that the Kuwaiti employer of the hostages stop doing business in Iraq.
Meanwhile, at least three people were killed when a suspected car bomb exploded Wednesday in a southern district of Baghdad. And at least two others were killed and four wounded when a missile hit a hospital in the capital.
North of Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed an American soldier and wounded six others.
And at least four Iraqis were killed and 14 wounded in clashes between U.S. Marines and gunmen in Ramadi, west of Baghdad.
At a Pentagon briefing, the top Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers said the situation in Iraq is more hopeful after the transfer of sovereignty last month, but he said the threat of insurgents remains "very real."
Some information for this report provided by Reuters, AFP and AP.
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