Iraqi National Guards abducted, officer says

Iraqi National Guards abducted, officer says
December 27, 2004, 13:45

Nearly two dozen troopers from the Iraqi National Guard may have been abducted by insurgents in the west of the country, according to an account by a Guard officer today. The defence ministry in Baghdad declined to comment on the report and no independent confirmation was available.

The officer, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said 21 men were seized as they returned by bus across the desert to their base at Qaim, close to the Syrian border, from Haditha, northwest of Ramadi and Falluja. "They were all kidnapped," the officer said, quoting witnesses as saying gunmen in several cars stopped the bus on the highway yesterday afternoon.

He said he believed the attackers belonged to a group led by Jordanian al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, although it was not clear how this had been established or whether any demand had been made by the abductors. Iraq's new, US-backed security forces have been prime targets for insurgents, especially in Sunni Arab areas of western and northern Iraq.

more
http://www.sabcnews.com/world/the_middle_east/0,2172,94787,00.html

edit: and this story you posted looks like a quantum leap escalation of the hostage story. 21 at one time!

an incredible story, absolutely impossible to explain the total lack of coverage of this ongoing crisis:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3662562.stm

Currently-held (not including Iraqis) hostages:

Ghazi Abu Hamzeh, Lebanese, reported taken on 13 November
Radim Sadiq, American, taken on 2 November
Roberto Tarongoy, Filipino, taken on 1 November
Roy Hallums, American, taken on 1 November
Noureddin Zakaria, Sudanese, taken on 30 October
one unidentified hostage, Somali, taken on 30 October
two unidentified hostages, Turkish, taken on 14 October
one unidentified hostage, Turkish, taken on 9 October
Cherbal Karam Haj, Lebanese, taken on 17 September
Aram Nalbandian, Lebanese, taken on 17 September
one unidentified hostage, Syrian, taken on 16 September
two unidentified hostages, Turkish, taken on 14 September
Khalifa al-Breizat, Jordanian, taken on 14 September
two unidentified hostages, East Asian, taken on 13 September
four unidentified hostages, Jordanian, taken on 5 September
unidentified hostage, Jordanian, taken on 1 September
Ali Ahmed Mousa, Somali, taken on 29 July
Saad Saadoun, Kuwaiti, taken on 5 June
Wael Mamduh, Jordanian, taken on 12 April
Timothy Bell and William Bradley, taken on 9 April
Mohammed Rifat, Canadian, taken on 8 April

more...

:puke:

These kidnappings create an impossibility of sorts of ever getting back to a civil nation. Who knows how many of these people will be killed, conscripted or scared to death