WAR: Turkish Embassy confirms 10 kidnappings in Iraq, page 1

The Turkish Embassy has issued a statement this morning that 10 employees of a US/Turkish company. The Arabic News Service AL Jazeera showed a video of the 10 hostages and their kidnappers. They stated that that if the company fails to depart Iraq in 3 days the hostages would be killed.

www.cnn.com
Turkish Embassy in Baghdad said Sunday that 10 employees of a U.S.-Turkish company were kidnapped in Iraq, a day after the wife of a captured American in Iraq pleaded for his life.

Arabic-language television news network Al-Jazeera broadcast video Saturday showing kidnappers who threatened to kill the 10 hostages if their company does not withdraw from Iraq within three days.

The embassy did not release any other information about the hostages or the company.

News of the kidnappings came a day after the wife of Jack Hensley, one of three Westerners kidnapped in Iraq Thursday, begged for their safety.

"Please let them go," Patty Hensley said Saturday from her home near Atlanta, Georgia. "They need to come home."

Americans Hensley and Eugene Armstrong and British citizen Kenneth John Bigley worked on Iraqi reconstruction projects for Gulf Supplies and Commercial Services, a Middle Eastern company.

Al Jazeera reported Saturday that a group calling itself Jihad and Unification is threatening to behead the Westerners in 48 hours unless female Iraqi prisoners are released from Iraq's Um Qasr and Abu Ghraib prisons. (Full story)

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This is the latest in a string of kidnappings that appear to be ramping up as the proposed elections in Iraq grow closer. US officials have expressed concern that elections may not be able to be held if the violence continues unabated. To that end the US military has embarked on a campaign that is attempting to root out insurgents prior to the election. However, the violence and kidnappings appear to be increasing on a daily basis.

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[edit on 19-9-2004 by FredT]

[edit on 24-9-2004 by Banshee]