Kidnapped Chinese in Iraq freed

Kidnapped Chinese in Iraq freed

Reuters, Beijing

Seven Chinese construction workers kidnapped in the volatile Iraqi town of Falluja have been released after 36 hours in captivity, Chinese state media and the Arabic television station Al Jazeera said.

The network aired footage showing at least six of the men, one with a bandaged forehead, sitting in a room as a first secretary of the Chinese embassy in Iraq expressed thanks and joy at their release.

China's official Xinhua news agency said two of the captives had been slightly injured in a traffic accident. "Their physical and spiritual condition is generally stable," it added.

"There were no negotiations and no ransom was paid," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan told a news conference.

Iraqi friends of China helped obtain their release, Kong said, adding that the hostages were not mistreated following their abduction on Sunday.

China was regarded as a friend by Iraq's former Baathist government under Saddam Hussein. Beijing pledged US$24 million for reconstruction at a donor conference in Madrid last year.

"We are deeply worried about the current situation in Iraq," Kong said. "The Iraq issue should be carefully and skillfully settled within the UN framework."

Meanwhile, Japanese Senior Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ichiro Aisawa hailed Jordan's efforts to help resolve the hostage crisis in Iraq after talks here on Tuesday with Prime Minister Faisal al-Fayez.

But the Japanese envoy, who heads a crisis cell at the embassy here, gave no word on the fate of the three Japanese kidnapped in Iraq last Thursday.

"The Jordanian government has helped us greatly to try to solve the hostage issue and for that we are very grateful from the bottom of our heart," Aisawa told reporters.

"I asked the prime minister for his continued help on this matter and the prime minister promised to cooperate as best he can."

Earlier the envoy said he also hoped to meet Jordan's King Abdullah II "as soon as possible."

Hostage takers, calling themselves the "Mujahedeen Brigades", have threatened to execute the three unless Japan withdraws its 550 troops from the southern Iraqi city of Samawa.

In a separatist development, an Islamist group holding four Italians demanded that Italy pull its troops out of Iraq, after other kidnappers freed five Ukrainians and three Russians on Tuesday in the latest spin of the hostage carousel.

The past week's kidnappings have lent a new dimension to the Iraq conflict, snaring civilians from a dozen countries, some of which, like Russia, opposed the war that ousted Saddam Hussein.

Al Jazeera television showed a tape of four men it described as Italian hostages seated on the ground holding their passports, with armed men behind them.

Italian state RAI television said earlier that four Italians working for private security firm DPS were missing and could be the same men whom insurgents claimed last week to have captured.

The Ukrainians and Russians were freed a day after they were seized in Iraq, where a U.S. military crackdown has led to the abduction of over 40 foreigners and a flareup of violence.