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Egyptians and iraqis kidnapped { September 25 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/elections/bal-te.iraq25sep25,1,4863627.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headlineshttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/elections/bal-te.iraq25sep25,1,4863627.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headlines
6 Egyptians, 4 Iraqis kidnapped
Victims work for Iraq's mobile phone company, according to authorities
Associated Press
September 25, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Kidnappers seized six Egyptians and four Iraqis working for the country's mobile phone company, authorities said yesterday, and Muslim leaders in Britain announced plans to send negotiators to Baghdad in hopes of winning the release of hostage Kenneth Bigley.
Gunmen abducted two of the Egyptians on Thursday in a bold raid on the firm's Baghdad office - the latest in a string of kidnappings targeting engineers working on Iraq's infrastructure, in a bid to undermine the U.S.-allied interim government. Eight other company employees were seized outside Baghdad on Wednesday.
Insurgents fired a rocket on a busy Baghdad street yesterday, killing four people and wounding 14, the military said.
The new kidnappings followed the beheadings of two American civil engineers who were taken hostage last week with Bigley. The 62-year-old Briton was shown in a videotape Wednesday begging authorities to meet his kidnappers' demands and save his life.
The militant group Tawhid and Jihad, led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has threatened to kill Bigley unless Iraqi women are freed from prison.
Also yesterday, the Muslim Council of Britain sent a pair of negotiators to meet with religious leaders in Baghdad to try to win Bigley's release.
The group described Daud Abdullah and Musharraf Hussain as "well-respected figures in the British Muslim community."
Iqbal Sacranie, the group's secretary-general, urged Bigley's captors to free him.
"Our religion, Islam, does not allow us to harm the innocent," said Iqbal Sacranie, the group's secretary-general. He urged the kidnappers to "release this man back into the arms of his waiting family."
The British Embassy in Baghdad handed out 50,000 leaflets carrying an appeal from Bigley's family for the kidnappers to spare him, the Foreign Office said.
Two of the Egyptians were kidnapped when gunmen stormed the office of the Iraqna mobile phone company Thursday night, said Interior Ministry official Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman. The gunmen tied up guards, hustled the two communications engineers into a car and drove away, officials said.
The two were employed by Motorola but were doing work for Iraqna, said Farouq Mabrouk, an Egyptian Embassy official.
Four more Egyptian engineers and four Iraqis were kidnapped Wednesday outside Baghdad, Mabrouk said. One of the Iraqis has been released, he said, without elaborating.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said it was exerting "intensive" efforts to secure the release of the captives. It said the ministry was looking forward to a speedy release "in light of the brotherly relations between the Egyptian and Iraqi peoples."
The wife of one of the kidnapped engineers - identified by the TV broadcaster Al-Jazeera as Mahmoud Mustafa - pleaded for his release. "He has two daughters who need him. I need him, too," Asmaa Abu al-Seoud said. "He is also a Muslim, and he always performs his prayers."
Other Egyptians have been abducted, including diplomat Mohammed Mamdouh Helmi Qutb, who was seized in July by militants angry at Cairo's plan to send security experts to Iraq. He was freed after three days of diplomatic efforts. In August, al-Zarqawi's group said it beheaded an Egyptian it said was a spy, but the death was never confirmed.
More than 140 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq -by anti-U.S. insurgents and criminals seeking ransoms. At least 26 have been killed.
In other developments:
U.S. warplanes, tanks and artillery units bombed the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah today, killing at least eight people and wounding 15, hospital officials and witnesses said. The U.S. military said the strikes targeted a meeting point in central Fallujah for fighters loyal to Jordanian-born terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
An aide to radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said his supporters could rise up again if Iraqi authorities continue raiding his offices and detaining his followers. Earlier this week, U.S. troops raided al-Sadr's office in the Shiite holy city of Najaf and detained about a dozen people.
U.S. troops clashed with insurgents around government buildings in the central city of Ramadi, injuring at least seven people, witnesses and hospital officials said.
Copyright © 2004, The Baltimore Sun
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