A military group calling itself the "Black Banners" threatened to kill the six hostages from Kenya, India and Egypt if the Kuwait company they are working for does not leave Iraq, the Dubai-based television Al Arabiya reported Wednesday.
The following is a list of foreign hostages known or reportedly to have been killed or still in captivity in Iraq.
2004:
April 8 -- Canadian Mohammed Rifat is kidnapped and still missing.
April 12 -- Jordanian Wael Mamduh is abducted in Basra and still missing.
April 14 -- An Italian guard Fabrizio Quattrocchi is killed.
May 11 -- A US civilian Nick Berg, missing since April 9, is beheaded. Militants with links to al-Qaeda claim responsibility.
June 5 -- A Kuwaiti lorry driver Saad Saadoun taking supplies to US troops is captured by a militant group called the Waqas Islamic Brigade.
June 7 -- Two Turks, Tarkan Arikoglu and Adnan Azizoglu, are seized in Falluja. Azizoglu is freed the next day.
June 10 -- Lebanese Hussein Ali Alyan is kidnapped along with two Iraqi colleagues. Their bodies are found on a road between Falluja and Ramadi on June 12.
June 17 -- South Korean Kim Sun-il is kidnapped in Falluja. He is beheaded on June 22. His captors are militants from Jama'at al-Tawhid and Jihad.
June 28 -- Al Jazeera shows footage of what they claim is the killing of US soldier Keith Matthew Maupin. There is no confirmation that Maupin is the man killed.
July 13 -- A group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a suspected linker to al-Qaeda, kills one of two Bulgarian hostages, Ivailo Kepov and Georgi Lazov. It threatens to kill the other within 24 hours unless US-led forces free prisoners.
July 17 -- Mohammed Omar, a Turkish oil tanker driver, is seized when his convoy of oil tanker trucks is attacked by men in four civilian cars northwest of Mosul, relatives say.
July 21 -- A military group calling itself the "Black Banners" said it has seized two Kenyans, three Indians and one Egyptian, all of whom are working for a Kuwait company. The group threatens to kill one hostage every three days if the company does not leave Iraq from 8 p.m. (1600 GMT) Wednesday.
(Xinhua News Agency July 22, 2004)
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