- Eleven Iraqi soldiers taken hostage by insurgents have
been murdered. A video released by their captors showed one man being beheaded
and 10 others being shot.
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- Another video released yesterday featured an abducted
Polish woman, while the deadline for a Japanese kidnap victim is due to
run out today.
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- Their captors - separate groups of militants - have demanded
that the respective countries of the two hostages withdraw their troops
from Iraq.
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- The killings of the soldiers, members of the Iraqi National
Guard, follow the capture and execution of 49 army recruits last weekend.
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- Iyad Allawi, the interim Prime Minister, blames US forces
of "gross negligence" on that occasion for allowing the soldiers
to go to their deaths unarmed and unprotected.
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- The men were seized on a highway between Baghdad and
Hilla earlier in the week. In the video, each man was made to read out
his name and that of his unit before they were murdered. A voiceover from
the head of the militant group, Ansar al-Sunnah, said: "Repent to
God ... abandon your weapons and go home and beware of supporting the apostate
Crusaders or their followers, the Iraqi government, or you will find death."
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- A statement on the website said: " We will not forget
about the blood of our elderly, women and children that are shed daily
in Fallujah, Samarra, Ramadi and elsewhere on your hands and the hands
of those you work with."
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- Ansar al-Sunnah was also responsible for the murders
of 12 Nepalese hostages in August.
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- The kidnapping of the Polish woman, whose identity remains
undisclosed, comes after the abduction of Margaret Hassan, the head of
the charity Care International in Baghdad. Like Mrs Hassan, the woman is
married to an Iraqi.
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- The Japanese captive, Shosei Koda, is being held by a
group headed by Jordanian militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. He was
taken captive after being seen wandering around Baghdad with a backpack
asking for hotel accommodation. Mr Koda had left Japan for a year-long
trip.
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=577138
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