Egyptian driver taken hostage
2004-07-07 09:55
Doha - An armed Iraqi group has taken hostage an Egyptian driver working for the US forces in Iraq, Al-Jazeera television reported in Qatar on Wednesday, showing a video.
Sayed Mohammed Sayed al-Garbawi was taken hostage by Iraqi insurgents when he was driving a tanker truck of fuel destined for the US forces, which had come from Saudi Arabia, Al-Jazeera said.
The hostage, in his fifties, with a grey beard and wearing a jellabah, was seen holding a passport in one hand, surrounded by four armed men, their heads and faces covered, on the brief snatch of video broadcast by Al-Jazeera.
The captors claim to be an armed group "representing the legitimate Iraqi resistance", the television said, without giving more details.
Hostage-takings have recently increased in Iraq. Some hostages have been executed by their captors, while others have been released. The most recent, a Lebanese-born US marine, Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun, once feared to have been beheaded, was released on Monday.
A statement attributed to the Islamic Retaliation Movement - Armed Resistance Wing and read on Al-Jazeera television said Hassoun was safe and had been released.