Filipino and Bulgarians still held hostage in Iraq

BAGHDAD - A Filipino and two Bulgarians remained captive in Iraq after militants issued a fresh threat to kill the Filipino within 24 hours.

Angelo de la Cruz had appeared close to release the previous night, but his captors then denied they were freeing him and vowed to kill him Sunday night unless Manila decided to pull its small troop contingent out of Iraq within 10 days.

"Yesterday was a false hope, he was not released but we are hoping he will soon be free," said a Philippine embassy source in Baghdad. He said he had heard nothing since the kidnappers had extended their deadline to kill the 46-year-old driver.

Death threats still hung over two Bulgarian truck drivers, but Sofia said it was growing more confident they had survived a Friday night execution deadline set by their captors.

"Today we have more reasons than yesterday to believe that there has been no radical change in the situation of the Bulgarian hostages in Iraq," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Gergana Grancharova told state radio.

"There are still many tense hours ahead. I do not want to leave the false impression of undue optimism," she said.

Amid the twists and turns of the hostage crisis, insurgents struck in the northern city of Kirkuk, slitting the throat of an Iraqi translator employed by US forces. Police said they had found his body in a river late Saturday.

A police captain was wounded when gunmen in a car shot at his vehicle southwest of Kirkuk the same day, police said.

Hostage-takers kept nerves taut as Bulgaria and the Philippines agonized over the fate of their nationals.

"The hostage will remain captive and treated as a prisoner under Islam until the last Filipino soldier leaves Iraq by latest July 20...or he will be executed," the Islamic Army in Iraq group said in a statement quoted on Al Jazeera television.

"We give the Philippine government an additional 24 hours starting from 11pm Iraqi time (7am NZT) Saturday to show it is serious about withdrawing its troops."

Government officials in Manila had said earlier de la Cruz was being taken to a Baghdad hotel, prompting premature celebrations by his family, friends and well-wishers.

Foreign Secretary Delia Domingo Albert said Saturday that Manila had already planned to pull out its 51-strong force on August 20, when its one-year mandate expires.

The abductors of the Bulgarians had said they would kill Georgi Lazov, 30, and Ivailo Kepov, 32, late Friday unless US-led forces freed prisoners in Iraq.

Al Jazeera had shown a video of the two men in front of masked captors identified as members of the Tawhid and Jihad group led by Jordanian militant and suspected al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Washington's most wanted man in Iraq.

Zarqawi has already claimed responsibility for the beheadings of an American and a South Korean in Iraq. Sunday, his group also claimed responsibility for the killing of five US soldiers in an attack in Samarra last week.

A group named the Army of Ansar al-Sunna said on its website it had carried out a suicide bombing that killed six people last week in the bloodiest attack since Iraq's interim government took over from US-led occupiers on June 28.

Ansar al-Sunna has vowed to attack Iraqi officials and foreign forces until "God's law" prevails in Iraq, despite the transfer of power that formally ended 14 months of occupation.

Hundreds of Iraqis demonstrated Sunday in support of Saddam Hussein in the town of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad.

Masked gunmen led the protesters marching through the mixed Sunni-Shi'ite town chanting against Iraq's new Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. They shouted: "We sacrifice our souls and blood for you, Saddam" and "No, no to Allawi."

Saddam, captured by US troops in December, appeared before an Iraqi judge on July 1 at the start of proceedings that could lead to charges for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq