Iraq: Three taken hostage

An Iraqi militant group says it has taken hostage two Pakistanis and an Iraqi driver employed by US forces, a video released by Al-Jazeera TV said.

The Arab satellite television station also aired video footage of kidnappers extending the deadline for their demands to be met for the release of seven foreign drivers abducted in Iraq.

The videotape, showing kidnappers reading their demands, did not say how long the deadline had been extended.

The video included a statement by a militant group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq saying it had issued a death sentence against the two Pakistanis, but the group did not say when it would kill the men.

The Pakistanis appeared to be the two men the Pakistani government said had gone missing in Iraq last week.

In part of the video broadcast by the station, several identity cards were shown, apparently belonging to the hostages, with one bearing the name of “Sajad Neseem”.

Pakistani officials said yesterday they were looking for two of their citizens who had disappeared in Iraq on Friday.

The men - Raja Azad, 49, an engineer, and Sajjad Naeem, 29, a driver - worked for the Kuwait-based al-Tamimi group in Baghdad.

The men went missing in Iraq on Friday when a convoy of two trucks was attacked.