Six Foreign Workers Reported Kidnapped In Iraq

3 November 2004 -- At least six foreign workers were reported kidnapped in Iraq today as incidents of kidnapping and violence continued to increase ahead of an expected offensive on the restive Iraqi towns of Al-Fallujah and Al-Ramadi.

Five Jordanians, most of them truck drivers, were reported kidnapped and a U.S.-Lebanese contractor was abducted from his Baghdad office.

In other news, gunmen killed Iraqi Oil Ministry official Hussein Ali al-Fattal in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad.

In Baghdad, three headless bodies were found under a bridge. Authorities were trying to determine who the people were, Iraqis or foreigners.

Also today, the militant group Ansar Al-Sunnah posted a statement on their website claiming they beheaded an Iraqi Army officer.

Finally, one U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded by a roadside bomb that exploded as a U.S. patrol passed southeast of Baghdad.

(Reuters/AP/AFP)

[For the latest news on Iraq, see RFE/RL's webpage on "The New Iraq".]