WAR: Jazeera: Iraq Militants Kill Two Macedonia Hostages, page 1

Arabic television Al Jazeera has just reported that two Macedonian hostages have been killed based on a video tape provided to them by a militant group. The militant group claimed that they seized the hostages outside of a U.S. base a few days ago. This is a developing story and details are thin at the moment.

story.news.yahoo.com
DUBAI (Reuters) - A militant group in Iraq (news - web sites) said it had killed two Macedonian hostages it accused of spying for the United States, Arabic television Al Jazeera reported Monday.

Al Jazeera said it had received a video tape showing the killing of the two men accompanied by a statement from the Islamic Army in Iraq stating it had seized the men a few days ago as they were leaving a U.S. base.

Al Jazeera did not show the killing nor did it name the hostages. An official from the channel gave no further details about the tape.

Three Macedonians identified as Dalibor Lazarevski, Dragan Markovic and Zoran Naskovski were seized by militants in Iraq in August and are still missing.

Al Jazeera aired a segment of the video showing two men speaking to the camera and then another shot of what appeared to be their passports. Their statements were not audible.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

The segment of the video shown on the air showed the hostages and their identification. The statements being made were not audible and they did not show the killing on the air. Macedonia has 32 military personnel in Iraq. Three of its citizens who work for a construction company are known to be held. The deaths have not been confirmed by other sources as of yet.

[edit on 10/18/04 by FredT]