Iraqi militants capture four truck drivers

An Iraqi militant group says it has captured four Jordanian truck drivers who it claims were delivering items for US forces in Iraq, according to a tape obtained by Al-Jazeera TV.

An editor at the Qatar-based station said the network had obtained a tape from a previously unknown group, called the Shura Council of Fallujah Mujahedeen, claiming that the four Jordanian drivers had been captured.

“This is a final warning to all those co-operating with US forces in Iraq,” the militant said in a statement heard on the tape without issuing a direct threat against the drivers, the editor said.

A militant shown on the tape claimed the drivers were transporting items for the US military in Iraq.

The claim couldn’t be independently verified.

Fallujah is a hotbed of anti-US violence west of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

Militants waging a 16-month insurgency have increasingly turned to kidnapping to force coalition forces and contractors from the country. More than 100 foreigners have been abducted since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2002 and many have been executed.