Iraqi militants said yesterday they had killed three Turkish captives, as France pressed on with diplomatic efforts to win the release of two French journalists held hostage by another guerrilla group.
The Arabic al-Jazeera satellite station said the Tawhid and Jihad group had claimed responsibility for killing the Turks.
Tawhid and Jihad is the group led by Jordanian al-Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Washington's most wanted man in Iraq with a US$25 million price on his head.
Meanwhile, seven foreign truckers held hostage for six weeks were released after their employer paid US$500,000 ransom as France worked frantically to muster the support of Muslims at home and abroad to win the release of two kidnapped French journalists.
Militants waging a violent 16-month insurgency in Iraq have increasingly turned to kidnapping foreigners here in recent months as part of an effort to drive out coalition forces and contractors. Other groups have taken hostages in hopes of extorting ransom, sometimes masking their greed under a cloak of politics.
The group holding the seven truck drivers, which called itself "The Holders of the Black Banners," had demanded their employer stop working in Iraq, that Iraqi detainees be released and that compensation be paid for the victims of fighting in the Iraqi city of Fallujah.
By last week, they had dropped all the other demands and said they just wanted a commitment from the company, Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Co, to stop working here, which it soon received.
But after the seven men -- one Egyptian, three Indians and three Kenyans -- were released Wednesday and whisked out of the country, the company gave a different version of events, saying the kidnappers had actually demanded US$6 million to US$7 million in ransom.
In the end, a team of employees drove to an unspecified location where the drivers were held and paid US$500,000 -- an immense fortune here -- to secure their release, KGL chief executive officer Said Dashti said.
"They [the kidnappers] were not trying to make a political statement, they were purely extortionists," he said.
The announcement the men were freed sparked celebrations in their home countries.
In a bizarre video given to news agencies soon after the release, the seven hostages are shown standing against a wall as a masked man shakes each man's hand, hugs him and hands him a Koran, another Islamic book and what appears to be a CD or cassette.
Also see stories:
People can preregister to receive their NT$10,000 (US$325) cash distributed from the central government on Nov. 5 after President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday signed the Special Budget for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience, the Executive Yuan told a news conference last night. The special budget, passed by the Legislative Yuan on Friday last week with a cash handout budget of NT$236 billion, was officially submitted to the Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon. People can register through the official Web site at https://10000.gov.tw to have the funds deposited into their bank accounts, withdraw the funds at automated teller
PEACE AND STABILITY: Maintaining the cross-strait ‘status quo’ has long been the government’s position, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan is committed to maintaining the cross-strait “status quo” and seeks no escalation of tensions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, rebutting a Time magazine opinion piece that described President William Lai (賴清德) as a “reckless leader.” The article, titled “The US Must Beware of Taiwan’s Reckless Leader,” was written by Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Defense Priorities think tank. Goldstein wrote that Taiwan is “the world’s most dangerous flashpoint” amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said that the situation in the Taiwan Strait has become less stable
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi yesterday lavished US President Donald Trump with praise and vows of a “golden age” of ties on his visit to Tokyo, before inking a deal with Washington aimed at securing critical minerals. Takaichi — Japan’s first female prime minister — pulled out all the stops for Trump in her opening test on the international stage and even announced that she would nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize, the White House said. Trump has become increasingly focused on the Nobel since his return to power in January and claims to have ended several conflicts around the world,
REASSURANCE: The US said Taiwan’s interests would not be harmed during the talk and that it remains steadfast in its support for the nation, the foreign minister said US President Donald Trump on Friday said he would bring up Taiwan with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) during a meeting on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in South Korea this week. “I will be talking about Taiwan [with Xi],” Trump told reporters before he departed for his trip to Asia, adding that he had “a lot of respect for Taiwan.” “We have a lot to talk about with President Xi, and he has a lot to talk about with us. I think we’ll have a good meeting,” Trump said. Taiwan has long been a contentious issue between the US and China.
RSS