Kidnappers in Iraq Free Seven Truckers

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=716&e=4&u=/ap/20040901/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

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BAGHDAD, Iraq - A militant group in Iraq (news - web sites) on Wednesday released seven foreign truck drivers they had held hostage for six weeks after dropping nearly all their demands, while Muslims united behind calls for the release of two French journalists captured by a separate group demanding that France revoke a controversial head scarf law.

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The release of the seven hostages — from India, Kenya and Egypt — came a day after a video surfaced on a militant Muslim Web site showing the purported killing of 12 Nepalese workers kidnapped in Iraq.


The truck drivers had been kidnapped July 21 by a group calling itself "The Holders of the Black Banners" and demanding the truckers' governments pull all their citizens out of Iraq and their Kuwaiti company withdraw as well. The group later added to its demands, insisting all Iraqi prisoners in Kuwaiti and U.S. prisons be freed and compensation be paid to the victims in Fallujah.


The group repeatedly extended a deadline hanging over the hostages as local mediators tried to work out a deal. On Thursday, the kidnappers said they were dropping nearly all their demands and would release the men if their employer, Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Co., agreed to stop working here.


On Friday, Rana Abu-Zaineh, an official at the company, said it had agreed.