Kenyan truck drivers held in school are rescued by British troops

TWO Kenyan truck drivers kidnapped 10 days ago outside the town of Al Zubayr were rescued yesterday when British troops burst into the school in which they were being been held.

David Shira Mukaria and Jakubu Maina Kamau were kept blindfolded, with their hands and feet bound together and without food and water.

They said they had spent their time in captivity praying for rescue or death, listening to their captors deciding whether or not to kill them.

The men were abducted by Iraqi militiamen after becoming separated from a food convoy heading for the southern seaport of Umm Qasr. British military officials said they believed the men were aid convoy drivers but the pair said they had been delivering food supplies to the US military.

They explained that they had become lost near Al Zubayr, outside Basra, when the other vehicles in the convoy switched off their lights and the convoy accelerated away.

A man approached them at the roadside and flagged them down with a torch, before about 20 armed men appeared and dragged them from the cab. They said they were beaten, tied up and taken to the school which, like many other civilian buildings in the town, had been taken over by the militia and used as a weapons dump and military base.

They were rescued yesterday morning when British troops from the Black Watch, which is in control of the town, were tipped off by local townspeople. Troops were sent to check out the reports and entered the school, expecting to be met by armed resistance. Instead, they found that the building had been abandoned by the militia and the two men were found in one of the classrooms.

Yesterday, the men said they were relieved to have been rescued, but criticised the security around the convoy which had allowed them to become separated and lost.

Mr Mukaria, 53, explained that they were in a convoy of 18 trucks which had taken food to the US camp and had been heading back to Camp Rhino in Kuwait when they became separated from the convoy.

“The other trucks finished unloading before us. On the way back we lost the way. The convoy switched off the lights and they were driving too fast,” he revealed.

He said they were outside Basra at about 11pm when a man appeared in the road with a torch.

“He shone a torch at us and asked us where we were going.

“We said ‘Kuwait’ and after that 20 people came to us with their guns. They beat us, tied us up, tied our hands and feet and covered our eyes and they took everything we had,” he said.

“They kept us there for 10 days. We had no food or water, nothing. We decided because we are Christians we would ask God to save us or take our souls to heaven. We prayed to God every day.

“We could not see them but we heard them talking. Some of them were speaking in English. Some of them said, ‘kill them’, some of them said, ‘no’. We just prayed and prayed.”

Mr Kamau, who had rope burns on his wrists when he was eventually rescued, said that yesterday morning he believed his prayers had been answered.

“I told them God will open this door and let us out,” he said.

“Half-an-hour later someone opened the door and ran away. When they opened the door we did not go out because we did not know if they were still there. But two hours later the army came.