Iraqi militants said yesterday they had killed three Turkish captives, as France pressed on with diplomatic efforts to win the release of two French journalists held hostage by another guerrilla group.
The Arabic al-Jazeera satellite station said the Tawhid and Jihad group had claimed responsibility for killing the Turks.
Tawhid and Jihad is the group led by Jordanian al-Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Washington's most wanted man in Iraq with a US$25 million price on his head.
Meanwhile, seven foreign truckers held hostage for six weeks were released after their employer paid US$500,000 ransom as France worked frantically to muster the support of Muslims at home and abroad to win the release of two kidnapped French journalists.
Militants waging a violent 16-month insurgency in Iraq have increasingly turned to kidnapping foreigners here in recent months as part of an effort to drive out coalition forces and contractors. Other groups have taken hostages in hopes of extorting ransom, sometimes masking their greed under a cloak of politics.
The group holding the seven truck drivers, which called itself "The Holders of the Black Banners," had demanded their employer stop working in Iraq, that Iraqi detainees be released and that compensation be paid for the victims of fighting in the Iraqi city of Fallujah.
By last week, they had dropped all the other demands and said they just wanted a commitment from the company, Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Co, to stop working here, which it soon received.
But after the seven men -- one Egyptian, three Indians and three Kenyans -- were released Wednesday and whisked out of the country, the company gave a different version of events, saying the kidnappers had actually demanded US$6 million to US$7 million in ransom.
In the end, a team of employees drove to an unspecified location where the drivers were held and paid US$500,000 -- an immense fortune here -- to secure their release, KGL chief executive officer Said Dashti said.
"They [the kidnappers] were not trying to make a political statement, they were purely extortionists," he said.
The announcement the men were freed sparked celebrations in their home countries.
In a bizarre video given to news agencies soon after the release, the seven hostages are shown standing against a wall as a masked man shakes each man's hand, hugs him and hands him a Koran, another Islamic book and what appears to be a CD or cassette.
Also see stories:
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS