BAGHDAD, 1 August 2004 — An Iraqi religious leader negotiating for the release of seven hostages was upbeat yesterday after a first round of talks with a representative of the drivers’ Kuwaiti employer.
As a second deadline set by the men’s kidnappers for the execution of one of them passed, Sheikh Hisham Al-Dulaymi said the talks with the Kuwaiti firm had been positive. He said the talks with Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company would resume today to try to win the release of three Indians, three Kenyans and an Egyptian kidnapped earlier this month.
“So far the outcome is positive. We have agreed on many issues, but we still need time. The company said it was ready to help the Iraqi people,” Dulaymi said, adding that he expected a deal early today.
“We are working for a humanitarian cause and hopefully we will get them back home safely,” he said.
Dulaymi asked for patience from the kidnappers — a group calling itself “The Holders of the Black Banners”.
A source at the talks, who declined to be identified, said the Kuwaiti firm had agreed to two of the demands of the kidnappers — ceasing to work in Iraq and compensation for the victims of US airstrikes in Fallujah. But the firm told Dulaymi that a third demand — the release of Iraqi prisoners in Kuwait — was impossible for a private company to achieve.
Dulaymi said although the company was private and had little influence with the Kuwaiti or US governments, it “has shown its willingness to help 250 victims of genocide in Fallujah.”
Mehdi Saleh, the representative of Kuwait and Gulf Link, did not talk to reporters. India ordered its ambassador in Oman, Talmiz Ahmed, to assist in the talks, but until late in the evening he had not arrived here.
Meanwhile, Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi’s Tawhid wal Jihad group yesterday kidnapped two drivers and threatened to behead them in 48 hours unless their Turkish firm stopped working in Iraq, Al-Jazeera television said. Al-Jazeera named the Turkish firm as Kahramanli and identified the hostages as Abdulrahman Damir and Saeed Anwar. It did not give their nationalities.
And a Lebanese Foreign Ministry official said a Lebanese was kidnapped in Baghdad early yesterday. The official said no contact has been made with the kidnappers.
Another Iraqi group holding four Jordanian truck drivers hostage has pledged to release the men after establishing they were not carrying goods to US troops, relatives said. Mohammad Hassan Abu Jafaar, 45, the brother of Ahmad Hassan Abu Jafaar, one of the four drivers seized Tuesday, said the kidnappers allowed his brother to speak to him yesterday. The fate of two other Jordanian drivers abducted last Monday by another group remained uncertain.
A Somali driver is also being held by Tawhid wal Jihad. The group executed two Pakistani hostages earlier this week.
More than 70 foreigners have been kidnapped by insurgents in recent months. Many have been videotaped and paraded on TV screens surrounded by armed men demanding their countries pull out their troops or their companies stop working here.
An Iraqi government source said the Iraqi authorities were speaking to foreign transport companies to urge them to employ Iraqi drivers in an effort to stem the wave of kidnappings.
In other violence, gunmen shot and killed Ismail Al-Kilabi, the head of the state-run Mamoudiyah Teachers Institute, after Friday prayers, police Lt. Ala’a Hussein said.
— Additional input from agencies
