Hostage's fate unknown after deadline passes
The fate of a South Korean hostage held by Iraqi militants remained unknown early today after the deadline set by his captors for his country to withdraw troops from Iraq had passed.
Five US service members and five Iraqis were killed in attacks around the country.
Despite the violence, Iraq’s interim president played down talk of martial law after the nation’s prime minister suggested such a move was under consideration in certain parts of the country after the June 30 transfer of sovereignty.
In Seoul, Commerce, Industry and Energy Minister Lee Hee-beom said today all South Korean businessmen in Iraq will leave by early next month following the abduction of Kim Sun-il.
In a videotape broadcast by the Arab satellite television station Al-Jazeera, the kidnappers set a deadline of 24 hours from sunset Sunday for the South Korean government to withdraw its troops or they would “send you the head of this Korean, and we will follow it with the heads of your other soldiers”.
The Seoul government said it would go ahead with plans to send 3,000 troops to Iraq despite the militants’ ultimatum.
Kim, 33, who works for a trading company in Baghdad, was believed to have been kidnapped on June 17, the South Korean government said. He was seen begging for his life on the videotape broadcast by Al-Jazeera.
“Korean soldiers, please get out of here,” Kim screamed in English. “I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die. I know that your life is important, but my life is important.”
Hours after the deadline passed, there was no word on Kim’s fate, and Al-Jazeera said it had received no new message from the kidnappers.
A South Korean Foreign Ministry official said the government could not say if Kim was still alive.
“We have various intelligence and information on that matter, but we cannot give you a definite answer,” spokesman Shin Bong-kil said in Seoul.
The kidnappers claimed to be from the Monotheism and Jihad group led by Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is believed to have ties to al-Qaida.
South Korea now has 600 military medics and engineers in the southern city of Nasiriyah. Once the deployment of additional troops is complete, South Korea will be the largest coalition partner after the United States and Britain.
In Ramadi, an insurgent stronghold 60 miles west of Baghdad, four US Marines were gunned down Monday.
A videotape delivered to Associated Press Television News showed four Marines in uniform lying dead in what appeared to be a walled compound. One of the Americans was slumped in the corner of a wall.
The bodies had no flak vests – mandatory for US troops in contested areas - and at least one was missing a boot. One fieldpack was left open next to a body as if the attackers had looted the dead before fleeing.
Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, coalition deputy operations chief, confirmed the killings but gave few details. He said a US quick reaction force found the bodies after the troops failed to report to their headquarters as required.
In a mortar attack in north-central Baghdad, a US Army soldier was killed and seven others were wounded, the US command said.
Five Iraqi contractors were killed in an ambush on their three-vehicle convoy 30 miles south of Mosul. The US command said two others were wounded.
