Hostages seized across Iraq

[DBAHO]

THREE Japanese hostages have been taken in Iraq by militia who are threatening to kill them within three days unless the Japanese government pulls its troops out.

 

Footage of the was been aired by the Al-Jazeera satellite television channel, their captors calling themselves the "Mujahedeen Brigades", a previously unknown group.

 

The Qatar-based television aired soundless video of the trio and their passports, adding that an accompanying statement had given Tokyo three days to meet its demands.

 

Other reports of eight South Koreans being taken hostage also came in from Iraq.

 

One reportedly later escaped, foreign ministry sources in the South Korean capital Seoul said.

 

A coalition official in Iraq also admitted a British civilian has been kidnapped this week in the southern Iraqi town of Nasiriya.

 

Nasiriya has been the scene of heavy fighting between radical Shiite militiamen and Iraqi troops.

 

The official has named the man as Gary Teeley Teeley, a British contractor.

 

He was abducted on Tuesday and has not been heard of since.

 

Efforts are apparently underway to locate him.

 

Earlier a senior MP from Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party told the Kyodo News Agency that he had been told by the government that three Japanese had been detained in Iraq.

 

Japan's Foreign Ministry has set up an emergency operations room.

 

Japan has sent several hundred ground troops to Iraq on a non-combat mission to help rebuild the country.

 

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has been one of the strongest backers of the US-led invasion of Iraq, a stance that has raised concern Japanese troops could be targeted by insurgents in that country.

[Flash Tizzle]

 

Its sad, these hostages will most likely be dead within three days. Japanese government will say something like "We don't negotiate with terrorist" and the Iraqis will proceed to torture the soldiers and drag their bodies through the streets. Even if the Japanese did withdrawl their troops could they trust enemy forces to safely return their soldiers? These are the same people who have pissed all over the geneva convention.

[Texsox]

 

Its sad, these hostages will most likely be dead within three days.  Japanese government will say something like "We don't negotiatie with terrorist" and the Iraqis will proceed to torture the soldiers and drag their bodies through the streets.

And the world is there to help them. Why the hell did they beg for our help?

[cwsox]

And the world is there to help them. Why the hell did they beg for our help?

asking seriously not to fight with anyone here, when was that?

 

 

I realize we were lied to by those in power about being greeted with flowers and dancing but I rather recall that I posted the comment that people do not like their country being invaded no matter what the self-proclaimed motives of the invader

[Texsox]

asking seriously not to fight with anyone here, when was that?

 

 

I realize we were lied to by those in power about being greeted with flowers and dancing but I rather recall that I posted the comment that people do not like their country being invaded no matter what the self-proclaimed motives of the invader

Really, so maybe this was just for us. That Saddam pissed us off? At least we found those WMD that we knew they had, and where they were at.

[Flash Tizzle]

asking seriously not to fight with anyone here, when was that?

Soon after the war began last year Iraqis talking to Chicago reports said they were scared to speak out against Saddam Hussein prior to the invasion. These people were afraid of a regime located half way across the word! I have to believe thats the general consensus to why so many weren't as outspoken to dethroning the Baath party.

 

What ever intentions Iraqi's had towards us has been trampeled during the last 9 months. Americans sure wore out their welcome.

[DBAHO]

More news from Iraq,

 

THOUSANDS of Sunni and Shiite Muslims forced their way through US military checkpoints Thursday to ferry food and medical supplies to the besieged Sunni bastion of Fallujah where US marines are trying to crush insurgents.

 

Troops in armoured vehicles tried to stop the convoy of cars and pedestrians from reaching the town located 50 kilometers west of Baghdad.

 

But US forces were overwhelmed as residents of villages west of the capital came to the convoy's assistance, hurling insults and stones at the beleaguered troops.

 

Some 20 kilometers west of Baghdad, a US patrol was attacked just moments before the Iraqi marchers arrived. Armed insurgents could be seen dancing around two blazing military vehicles.

 

Two US Humvees tried to stop the marchers but were forced to drive off as residents joined the marchers, shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is greater).

 

US troops again blocked the highway further west, but were forced to let the Iraqis past as they came under a hail of stones.

 

Sitting on top of supply trucks, young men also hurled empty bottles of water and waved their shoes in sign of disdain at the US troops.

 

The cross-community demonstration of support for Fallujah had been organized by Baghdad clerics both Sunni and Shiite amid reports that the death toll in the town had reached 105 since late Tuesday.

 

The rare display of unity came after Shiite radicals launched an uprising in cities across central and southern Iraq, shattering a year of relative tolerance of the US-led occupation from the country's majority community.

 

In Baghdad, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the US commander of coalition ground forces in Iraq, faced tough questioning about the mounting civilian casualties in Fallujah and allegations that US marines were blocking delivery of humanitarian aid.

 

"We are not cutting off humanitarian aid to the people of Fallujah. We are working multiple initiatives (for aid delivery) that have to be coordinated with the commander of the ground," he said.

 

The marchers set off from the Um al-Qora mosque in west Baghdad where wellwishers donated food, drinks and medicine.

 

"No Sunnis, no Shiites, yes for Islamic unity," the marchers chanted. "We are Sunni and Shiite brothers and will never sell our country."

 

They carried portaits of Shiite radical leader Moqtada Sadr, as well as pictures of Sunni icon, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of the Palestinian Hamas group who was assassinated in an Israeli air raid last month.

 

"Our families in Fallujah, remember that our dead go to heaven and theirs to hell," read a banner held aloft by the crowd.

 

Mosque imam Sheikh Ahmad Abdel Ghafur al-Samarrai said the US-led coalition had given the Iraqi Red Crescent permission to organize a relief convoy but made no secret of his hostility to the US offensive in Fallujah.

 

"The Iraqi Red Crescent got permission from the coalition, following negotiations over one day and one night to bring these supplies into the city," Samarrai said.

 

"Baghdad residents decided to send initially 90 cars with food and medicines to Fallujah families. We want to express solidarity with our brothers who are being bombed by warplanes and tanks," he told AFP.

 

"It is a form of jihad (holy war) which can also come in the form of demonstrations, donations and fighting. The people who are occupied have the right to fight occupation, whatever the means they use."

 

The Sunni cleric called on US commanders to stop the bloody offensive they launched in Fallujah on Tuesday after four US civilian contractors were killed in the town and two of their bodies mutilated.

 

"This only brings hatred and enmity," Samarrai said of the US assault.

 

"They killed the elderly praying at the mosques, as well as women and children. This is indiscriminate killing."

 

The cleric said he opposed the way the bodies of the American contractors had been treated but insisted that what the US marines were now doing in Fallujah was no better.

 

They "are doing the same by mutilating the residential neighborhoods," he said.

[EvilMonkey]

"The cleric said he opposed the way the bodies of the American contractors had been treated but insisted that what the US marines were now doing in Fallujah was no better.

They "are doing the same by mutilating the residential neighborhoods," he said. "

 

Is it just me, or does anyone else see that these two things are NOT the same?

[CrimsonWeltall]

and don't you see that some people are complete idiots?

[EvilMonkey]

and don't you see that some people are complete idiots?

Such as.....

[CrimsonWeltall]

such as the guy you quoted

[DBAHO]

Now US Soldiers missin,

 

TWO US soldiers were confirmed missing today after an attack on their convoy in Iraq, with fears they could be the latest in a series of kidnap victims.

 

Information from the US military on the incident followed unconfirmed claims four Italians and two Americans had been captured.

 

Military spokesman Justin McCue said: "There are two soldiers missing as a result of an attack on the convoy today ... the attack occured right around Baghdad International Airport."

 

He said it was unknown if the soldiers had been abducted by insurgents following a flurry of kidnappings of foreigners across Iraq in recent days.

 

Earlier today, US Central Command announced that a member of the 13th Corps Support Command had been killed and 12 wounded in an attack on their convoy near Baghdad International Airport.

 

It was not immediately known if the missing soldiers were part of the same convoy.

 

McCue said he had no information on missing American civilians.

 

A CNN report today said several American civilians were also unaccounted for in Iraq.

 

The Italian government said it had no reports of any citizens missing.

 

 

The foreign ministry said a roll call had been carried out of all Italian military and civilian personnel in Iraq, including non-governmental organisation staff and journalists, and all had been accounted for.

 

But it said it was continuing to check the possibility "that today's reports could refer to Italians present in Iraq in another capacity without having informed the Italian authorities".

 

Deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said the US consulate in Baghdad and the Coalition Provisional Authority had "not been able to substantiate" the kidnap reports, but were still checking rosters of Americans in Iraq to see if any were missing.

 

Three Japanese are being held captive in Iraq, and a Canadian, an Arab Israeli and a Briton are also missing.

 

A previously unknown group calling itself the Mujahedeen Brigades has showed the Japanese hostages in a videotape aired by the Al-Jazeera satellite channel. It threatened to kill the three unless Tokyo withdrew its troops.

 

The families of the trio have begged Tokyo to pull its troops out of the country, but the government reiterated there would be no withdrawal.

 

Yesterday, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australia would not bow to terrorist demands even if the estimated 30 Australian civilians working in Iraq were taken hostage.

 

"Individual countries need to make the point very clearly now that they won't give in to blackmail and threats at this time," he said.

 

"The Australian Government could never be blackmailed in that way."

 

In Baghdad today, coalition spokesman Dan Senor said: "We will not negotiate with any terrorists that take hostage of any individual, and we will seek to capture or kill them."

 

Earlier, faced with mounting anger over heavy civilian casualties in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, US civil administrator Paul Bremer announced a unilateral 24-hour suspension of the offensive against Sunni Muslim insurgents.

 

Bremer said the halt was meant to "allow for a meeting between members of the (coalition-installed interim) Governing Council, local Muslim leadership and the leadership of anti-coalition forces".

 

The immediate aim was to allow the delivery of food and medical supplies to besieged residents.

 

But although commanders in Baghdad insisted the ceasefire remained in force, US officers on the ground in Fallujah said the truce lasted only 90 minutes.

 

The sound of machine-guns and mortars still reverberated and Lieutenant Colonel Brennan Byrne, a battalion commander, made it clear he had received no new orders to halt the campaign.

 

"Right now, we're going back to the attack. My colonel told me we're still on the offensive," Byrne told a correspondent embedded with the troops.

 

Later more explosions could be heard as US aircraft buzzed the sky. Marine officers said AC-130 gunships were firing heavy ammunition, but that could not be independently confirmed.

 

Earlier, many residents fled the besieged city. Men, women and children fled on foot through backstreets and paths that cut through fields, while Fallujah mayor Saad Abdullah al-Rawi called on the world to "pressure the Americans to stop the massacres in the city".

 

The coalition also came under pressure from its Iraqi allies to stop the bloodshed.

 

Adnan Pachachi, a prominent Sunni member of the interim Governing Council, slammed the US assault on Fallujah as "illegal and totally unacceptable" in an interview with the Dubai-based Arab satellite channel Al-Arabiya.

 

More than 400 Iraqis had been killed and 1000 wounded in the six-day US offensive against insurgents in Fallujah, an aide to a member of the interim Governing Council said today.

 

Elsewhere, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the coalition's deputy director of operations, said US forces had not yet wrested full control of the central city of Kut from radical Shiite militiamen as earlier stated by a US military spokeswoman.

 

A US battalion-sized force with 1000 armoured personnel carriers and other mechanised vehicles from Baghdad was operating inside the city and destroyed the headquarters of firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, he said.

 

"They will continue operations tonight and we expect by this time tomorrow morning we have firm coalition control of all government facilities," he added.

 

In Baghdad's Shiite slum of Sadr City, US forces pulled out of the district police headquarters, six police stations and the town hall after five days of clashes with radical militiamen, a correspondent in the city said.

 

But Kimmitt insisted that coalition forces and Iraqi security forces were in full control of Baghdad, including Sadr City.

 

Meanwhile, Sadr launched a hunger strike after branding US President George W. Bush an "enemy" and telling him to withdraw his troops from Iraq or face a revolution.

 

The cleric's aides said Bremer had ruled out peace talks.

 

Coalition authorities also warned Shiite pilgrims gathering in central Iraq, particularly Najaf, for ceremonies marking the 40th day after the anniversary of the death of imam Hussein on Sunday, to show great vigilance and caution.

 

Three Iraqis were killed and 15 wounded in clashes pitting Shiite radicals against Spanish and Salvadoran coalition troops near the central cities of Kufa and Najaf, officials said.

 

The US Central Command said two US soldiers were killed and 13 wounded in two separate attacks in Iraq, one being the convoy attack near the airport.

 

On the ground, an AFP photographer witnessed fierce clashes between US troops and insurgents in Abu Gharib, west of the capital.

 

In London, the British government confirmed media reports that a British national working for a US firm had been killed in Iraq.

 

Michael Bloss, 38, was working for US private security firm Custer Battles.

 

He was killed on Thursday morning protecting workers who came under attack in the town of Hit, around 150 kilometres west of Baghdad.

 

Virginia-based Custer Battles said Bloss had been "killed as a result of an ambush near the town of Hit while successfully protecting contractors involved in the reconstruction effort".

 

In the central Shiite city of Karbala, three Sadr militants and an Iranian woman were killed during four hours of clashes with coalition troops, health officials said.

 

The governorate headquarters in the northern city of Mosul was also attacked by dozens of insurgents, who were beaten back by Iraqi police and civil defence forces, a government official said.

 

Separately, a six-year-old boy was seriously wounded by shell fragments, following exchanges of fire between US troops and armed men east of Mosul.

 

Spain's defence ministry said three Spanish soldiers had been wounded, one seriously, in an overnight ambush in the southern town of Diwaniyah.