Hostages face beheading after Philippines pull-out

Militants took six foreign truck drivers hostage and threatened to behead them unless their company ends its business in Iraq, and their countries – India, Egypt and Kenya – pull all their citizens out.

The threat came two days after the Philippines withdrew its 51-troop contingent from Iraq, giving in to the demands of militants holding a Filipino truck driver.

The driver, Angelo dela Cruz, returned to the Philippines today, two days after his release. He was given a hero’s welcome, with streamers reading: “Welcome home, Angelo” stretched along Manila’s main boulevard.

The threat to behead the hostages – and separate warnings against Bulgarian, Polish and Japanese troops – is the latest development in a violent campaign to scare off foreigners, who play a vital role in supporting the new US-backed government and in the reconstruction of Iraq.

Iraqi and US officials had warned of a potential surge in threats and hostage-taking when the Philippines withdrew its troops.

A militant group calling itself “The Holders of the Black Banners” announced it had taken two Kenyans, three Indians and an Egyptian hostage, and said it would behead a captive every 72 hours beginning on Saturday night if their countries do not announce their intentions to withdraw troops and citizens from Iraq.

None of those countries is part of the 160,000-member US-led coalition. However, interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi appealed last week to India and Egypt to send in troops.

“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,” read a statement from the group.

In a separate threat, a previously unknown group calling itself al-Qaida’s European branch posted a message on an Islamic website promising deadly attacks in Bulgaria and Poland if the two countries do not withdraw their troops from Iraq.

The group, calling itself the Tawhid Islamic Group, said Bulgaria and Poland will “pay the price” just as the United States and Spain did, referring to the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington and deadly train explosions in Madrid in March of this year.

More than 60 foreigners have been taken hostage in recent months in Iraq, where thousands of foreigners work as contract workers for coalition forces, in crucial reconstruction jobs or as truck drivers hauling cargo for private companies.

The six foreigners threatened were truck drivers working for a Kuwaiti company, the militants said.

The group warned that every Kuwaiti company dealing with Americans “will be dealt with as an American”.

In photos provided to the Associated Press news agency, six of the hostages were shown standing behind three seated, masked gunmen. One of the hostages held a paper with the typed names of seven men – presumably six of them the hostages - their nationalities and other personal details.

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

In a video broadcast on the Arab-language television station Al-Arabiya, a hostage identifying himself as Sanad called on his company to pull out of Iraq.

“They will chop off our heads,” he said. “Who will feed my family, my brothers and sisters?”

Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua said Kenya has no troops or companies in Iraq, but there were hundreds of Kenyans working for companies in Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

In the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk today, a police patrol and a government-run cultural centre were attacked, leaving two people wounded, security officials said.

A police lieutenant was seriously wounded when gunmen fired on a police patrol in Kirkuk before escaping early today, said Captain Salam Zangana of the Kirkuk police.

In the other attack, Aslan Mohammed Rashim, a cultural centre official and ethnic Turkoman, was shot as he walked to his car after leaving his office last night.