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| Sunday, 25 July 2004 |
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Iraq militants raise stakes, seize Egyptian diplomat AGHDAD, Saturday (Reuters) Negotiations were under way on Saturday to try to secure the release of a senior Egyptian diplomat seized by militants as he left a Baghdad mosque - the first envoy to be taken hostage in a growing wave of abductions. "We are involved in intense talks to try to secure his release," a source at the Egyptian embassy in Baghdad told Reuters, referring to Mohamed Mamdouh Qutb, the number three in the mission, who was abducted after prayers on Friday afternoon. "We were so shocked. He's a very decent and religious man," said the source, who asked not to be identified. The kidnapping of a well-protected diplomat marks a new departure for the militants. Qutb, in his fifties, was shown sitting in front of six masked and armed men from a group calling itself the "Lions of God Battalions in Iraq" in a tape broadcast on Arab satellite channel al-Jazeera on Friday evening. "The group said the abduction was in response to comments by Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif that Cairo was ready to offer its security experience to the temporary Iraqi government," the Arabic television station said. Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi visited Cairo this week and discussed the possibility of using Egyptian troops in training Iraq's forces. But no deal was struck and Egyptian officials were quick to emphasise that point. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, speaking in Cairo, said: "Egypt sending any forces or military personnel to Iraq was not a matter that has been proposed at all", the country's official news agency MENA reported. Qutb's abduction came four days after he was widely photographed celebrating the release of an Egyptian truck driver kidnapped by insurgents earlier this month. He was freed after his Saudi Arabian employer promised to pull out of Iraq. Militants have seized dozens of foreign workers since April to push demands for foreign troops or foreign companies to leave the country. Several hostages have been killed. Early on Saturday an explosion set fire to an oil pipeline north of Baghdad, witnesses and an oil refinery official said. An official at Iraq's main northern oil refinery at Baiji said the blaze was on a pipeline that carries oil from the refinery to Baghdad. The U.S. military also said that a U.S. marine had died of wounds sustained on Friday west of Baghdad, bringing to 666 the number of troops killed in action in Iraq since last year's invasion. Al Jazeera showed a video tape of a masked man from the Black Banners group reading a statement in front of the seven men - three Indians, three Kenyans and an Egyptian. "(The group) said the company must pay compensation to the families of the dead in Falluja and Iraqi prisoners in American and Kuwait jails should be released," al Jazeera said. U.S. strikes on the rebellious Iraqi city of Falluja over the past month have killed about 40 people. The hostages' employer, the Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company, said earlier it would not meet the kidnappers' original demand that the firm cease operations in Iraq. |
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