Iraq

Militants take more hostages

BAGHDAD - Iraqi militants said Saturday they kidnapped two Turks and threatened to behead them within 48 hours, the latest in the country's unrelenting wave of abductions, even as efforts intensified to free seven truck drivers taken captive.

The Tawhid and Jihad group of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi demanded the Turks' employers leave Iraq in a videotape aired on Al-Jazeera television.

Al-Jazeera identified the men as two Turkish truck drivers working for a Turkish company delivering goods to U.S. forces in Iraq. The network said the militants threatened to decapitate the men.

In another abduction, a Lebanese citizen was snatched in Baghdad early Saturday, a Lebanese Foreign Ministry official told the Associated Press. The official said no contact had been made with the kidnappers.

The victim's Iraqi driver, who also was snatched but was later released, identified the Lebanese man as Vlado Abu Ghadi, director of the Lara construction company.

Mediators and officials expressed optimism Saturday for the release of seven hostages - three Indians, three Kenyans and an Egyptian - held since July 21. An official from the drivers' Kuwait employer met tribal leaders acting as mediators to craft an offer to their captors, and India sent its ambassador to Oman, Talmiz Ahmed, to Iraq to help in the negotiations.

The kidnappers have threatened to kill one of the hostages if their employer, Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Co., fails to meet their demands, including ending their work in Iraq. The group, which calls itself "The Holders of the Black Banners," had said it would carry out the threat by Friday night, but they extended deadlines repeatedly.

Meanwhile, Turkish driver Mehmet Dayar, abducted in Iraq on July 17, was freed in Mosul after promising his captors not to return, his niece Jihan Dayar said.

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