New hostages in Iraq plead for their lives on tape

Lined up in a dark room, seven foreign truck drivers pleaded for their lives in a video tape filmed by militants holding them hostage in Iraq - the tension broken only when an Egyptian told his mother not to worry.

Nervous and sweating, the three Indians, three Kenyans and the Egyptian gave their names and nationalities on the tape, given to foreign news agencies on Thursday.

At the end of the tape - and after he had asked not to be beheaded - a smiling Mohammed Ali Sanad from Egypt tried to reassure his family.

"Mum, if you see me on TV don't get worried, we are with the best people, the Iraqis. They are feeding us, but this is routine and must happen so they can stop infidels from entering Iraq," he said.

"You too my kids, Ahmed and Ali, don't worry. I am coming at the end of the month as I promised you, but if we die then I say thank God."

A hitherto unknown Iraqi group calling itself the "Black Banners" has threatened to kill the drivers unless the Kuwaiti firm they work for pulls out of Iraq. The group made the threat in a tape aired by Al Arabiya television on Wednesday. The captors have vowed to behead one hostage every three days.

The kidnappings are the latest in a spate of hostage-taking in Iraq, mainly designed to put pressure on foreign governments and companies to pull out of the country or stay away. India, Kenya and Egypt are not part of the US-led coalition.

Wearing a faded green T-shirt, one of the Kenyan men said:

"I've been sent to Iraq, which is not good. Iraq is a dangerous zone. I want to tell everyone not to come to Iraq, to come to help the Americans. Americans are not good."

None of the militants was visible in the tape, but a few of the hostages glanced sideways when they spoke.

As one of the Indians nervously spoke to the camera, Sanad could be heard saying to him in Arabic: "Tell them we're in danger. Tell them we're in danger."

Wearing an open-necked white shirt and speaking at the start of the tape, Sanad begged to be spared.

"We want to go home. It was wrong to come to Kuwait and wrong to help the Americans ... I swear it's wrong," he said.

"It is the first and the last time I come to Iraq and to Kuwait. Please, we want to go home, help us, help release us so they don't behead us," he added, wiping sweat from his face.

Kenyan papers have given the names of the Kenyans as Ibrahim Khamis, Salm Faiz Khamis and Jalal Awadh.

Ibrahim's wife in the coastal town of Mombasa said her husband had stayed in Iraq to help his family.

"I hope the government will intervene at the right time to free the hostages. The family is in prayer, we hope we will be able to see our husband and father again," said Esha Nyarimbo Mwandighi, a mother of four.

Several hostages captured in Iraq have been executed, including an American, a South Korean and a Bulgarian who have been beheaded by a group led by militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Washington's top target in Iraq.

Many hostages have also been freed. An Egyptian driver was released on Monday after the Saudi firm he worked for agreed to his captors' demands to close its offices in Iraq.

On Tuesday, a Filipino truck driver was set free after Manila withdrew its troops in response to demands from a group who had threatened to behead him.

Increasingly, foreign truck drivers plying Iraq's dangerous highways are being seized or killed, their lumbering convoys no match for militants in sports utility vehicles or BMWs.

Many drivers have come to Iraq despite the dangers in search of bigger salaries than they can make at home.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq