We’ll kill Bulgarians, Filipino: Rebels

Militants in Iraq held a Filipino and two Bulgarians under death threat on Friday to press demands for Manila’s troops to go home and f...

Militants in Iraq held a Filipino and two Bulgarians under death threat on Friday to press demands for Manila’s troops to go home and for US-led forces to release prisoners.

There was confusion about another apparent abduction as Lebanese-born US Marine Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun who turned up in his native country after going missing in June left Beirut for a US military base in Germany. Bulgaria, which has contributed 470 troops to the multinational force in Iraq, vowed not to bow to demands by the kidnappers of its nationals, identified as civilian truck drivers Ivailo Kepov and Georgi Lazov.

Private BTV channel said the two had unloaded cars from their trucks in the northern city of Mosul and had been on the way home when seized. Bulgarian Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg said his government would ‘‘engage all possible channels, means and connections’’ to secure the release of the hostages.

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On Thursday, a group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi said it would kill the Bulgarians within 24 hours unless US-led forces released prisoners. The family of Filipino driver Angelo de la Cruz appealed to the Manila government to bring him home as diplomats tried to contact the militants threatening to decapitate him.

In the latest violence in Iraq, guerrillas killed five US soldiers and two Iraqi guards in a mortar attack in Samarra on Thursday. Two civilians were killed in subsequent clashes.

A US soldier died after insurgents attacked his patrol in Baghdad the same day. —(Reuters)