US soldier kidnapped in Iraq

Kidnappers are holding an American soldier hostage in Iraq, it was reported tonight.

Military officials told US media that they had received a video, believed to show one of two Gis who went missing on April 9.

The two soldiers disappeared during an attack on a convoy, in which seven civilian contractors, working for the US firm Halliburton also went missing.

The soldiers and contractors were part of a supply convoy that was travelling on Highway One about seven miles west of Baghdad.

They were travelling toward the town of Abu Ghraib, last Friday when they were attacked by gunmen who also launched rocket-propelled grenades and mortars.

Sources told both ABC News and CNN that the captured soldier was seen talking on the video.

The two soldiers who went missing in the April 9 attack are Sergeant Elmer Krause, 40, of Greensboro, North Carolina, and Private first class, Keith Maupin, 20, of Batavia, Ohio.

It was not clear which of the soldiers appeared in the video.

Earlier, it emerged that an American businessman had been abducted from his hotel in the British- controlled Iraqi city of Basra by kidnappers disguised as policemen.

Basra police chief Colonel Khalaf al-Maleki said the abduction of the American, who was of Jordanian origin, took place last night.

Including the Basra abduction, at least 21 foreigners have been abducted over the past week in a wave of kidnappings coinciding with intense violence around the country.

The abduction in Basra appeared to be the farthest south that a kidnapping has taken place.

The vast majority of the abducted foreigners were snatched on roads west and south of Baghdad, where gunmen have run rampant the past week, attacking convoys and battling US troops.

At least two hostages, two Arab aid workers, are believed to have been taken in south-central Iraq.

The kidnapped American is the owner of a security company that provides bodyguards, said the owner of the al-Rashid hotel, where he was staying.

Meanwhile, three Czech reporters, missing in Iraq since the weekend, were released by their kidnappers today.

“We all are in good condition,” one said from the Czech embassy in Baghdad.