Confusion as group claims six hostages

A militant group in Iraq says it has taken six hostages – two Kenyans, three Indians and an Egyptian – hostage and will behead them if their countries do not announce their intention to withdraw their troops from Iraq immediately.

However, none of those countries are part of the 160,000 member coalition force in the country.

The group, calling itself The Holders of the Black Banners, said they had taken the six truckers hostage and would behead one of them every 72 hours if their nations did not pull out of Iraq and the company they work for did not close its branch here.

The deadline starts from 8pm Wednesday, it said.

“We have warned all the countries, companies, businessmen and truck drivers that those who deal with American cowboy occupiers will be targeted by the fires of the Mujahedeen,” the statement said.

“Here you are once again transporting, goods, weapons and military equipment that backs the US army.”

Photographs of six of the hostages show them standing behind three seated, masked gunmen.

One of the hostages holds a paper with the typed names of seven men – presumably six of them were the hostages – their nationalities, passport numbers and the registration numbers of the trucks they were driving.

The paper is stamped July 20 and the words Universal Services were hand-written on top.

The names on the paper were Ibrahim Khamis, from Kenya, Salm Faiz Khamis, from Kenya, Jalal Awadh, from Kenya, Antaryami, from India, Tilak Raj, from India, Sukdev Singh, from India, and Mohammed Ali Sanad, from Egypt.

It was not clear which of the Kenyans listed on the paper was not among the hostages.

From the statement, the trucking company that employed the men appeared to be based in Kuwait.

The statement came a day after militants released Filipino hostage Angelo dela Cruz after his country gave in to their demand and pulled its 51-member force out of Iraq.

That withdrawal led to fears militants would try to take more hostages.