Americans seized in Iraq convoy hijack

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061117/ts_nm/iraq_dc

Americans seized in Iraq convoy hijack

By Aref Mohammed 15 minutes ago

SAFWAN, Iraq (Reuters) - British forces mounted raids in southern
Iraq on Friday, a day after four Americans and an Austrian were abducted when the civilian convoy they were guarding was hijacked, Iraqi security sources said.


Iraqi security sources said they were unaware of any deaths among the hostages after Arabiya television quoted a security source saying the Austrian was killed in a gunbattle between U.S. forces and the kidnappers in which four others also died.

Amid general confusion and numerous incidents, police said they had shot dead an American in civilian clothes and wounded another after the Americans killed two policemen who stopped their unmarked vehicle near the town of Zubayr on Friday.

A British military spokesman said troops killed two gunmen in a raid near the border town of Safwan, close to where the convoy was attacked after crossing from Kuwait. But he said that raid was not related to the search for the missing foreigners.

He declined to comment on what Iraqi security officials said was a search by British troops for hostages in the Garma area of Basra, the main city in the oil-rich, mostly Shi'ite region.

[annabanana]

1. See the information in the British press account

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6157082.stm

-snip-

"The foreigners taken were all security contractors. Nine civilians were freed."

The "security contractors", technically, are civilians. But I think the British press, in seperating them from civilian] civilians..is closer to the truth on the ground.

[maddezmom]

2. duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2618740