Soldiers free captured Kenyans

Two Kenyan truck drivers taken hostage by a gang of Saddam Hussein’s brutal militiamen were freed by British soldiers, it emerged today.

David Shira Mukaria and Jakubu Maina Kamau were kidnapped 10 days ago outside Al Zubayr in southern Iraq and held in an abandoned school where they were beaten and blindfolded.

Following their capture the two men’s faces were paraded on television footage obtained by Arabic satellite network Al-Jazeera.

They were initially thought to be British but today explained they were Kenyan truck drivers contracted to deliver food to US troops.

They said they got separated from their convoy and were ambushed by around 20 guerrilla fighters.

They were rescued by the Black Watch, now in control of Al Zubayr, who were tipped off that they were being held in the school.

When the British soldiers got there the Iraqis had already fled.

British troops arrived in two Warriors and burst in to find the men in one of the classrooms.

Mr Mukaria, 53, told reporter Gethin Chamberlain of The Scotsman: “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, 37, told reporter Nick Parker of The Sun: “I was sure we were going to die.

“I remember seeing a man with his finger on the pin of a grenade as they argued about whether they would kill us or not.

“David and I are both Christians and this morning I said: ’We must pray together for a miracle.’

“So we prayed and 30 minutes later the door swung open and there were two British soldiers standing there.

“God must have given them the power to save us. It really was a miracle that they came.”