Fast Facts: Iraq's Hostages
Thursday, March 30, 2006
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Insurgents in Iraq have kidnapped more than 250 foreigners and killed at least 40 of them:
TAKEN:
Thomas Nitzschke and Rene Braeunlich, German engineers. Kidnapped by gunmen Jan. 24 from an Iraqi government-owned detergent plant in Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad. Shown in a video made public Jan. 31; kidnappers demand that Germany close its embassy and stop cooperating with the Iraqi government.
Two Moroccans. Al Qaeda in Iraq, the terror group led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, issued a statement saying it abducted the men. The Moroccan Foreign Ministry said embassy driver Abderrahim Boualam, 49, and employee Abdelkrim el Mouhafidi, 55, disappeared Oct. 20 after driving back from Jordan, where they went to get paychecks.
Joao Jose Vasconcellos, 55, an engineer from Brazil. Seized in an ambush Jan. 19, 2005, en route to Baghdad airport. An Iraqi and a British security contractor die in the attack, which was claimed in a statement issued by the Ansar al-Sunnah Army and the Mujaheeden Brigades.
Aban Elias, 41, Iraqi-American civil engineer from Denver. Seized May 3, 2004, by Islamic Rage Brigade.
KILLED:
Enzo Baldoni, Italian journalist. Reported killed Aug. 26, 2004; Islamic Army in Iraq claimed March 23, 2006, that it killed him.
Kim Sun-il, 33, South Korea translator. Beheaded June 22, 2004, by al-Zarqawi's group.
FREED OR ESCAPED:
MISSING:
U.S. Army Spc. Keith M. Maupin, 20, of Batavia, Ohio, and Timothy Bell of Mobile, Ala. Disappeared April 9, 2004, after an attack on a fuel convoy. Arab television reported June 29, 2004, that Maupin had been killed; he is listed as missing by the U.S. military.
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