Posted on 06/21/2004 12:03:00 AM PDT by HAL9000
(URGENT) American and European Hostages Held Hostage: Company Head
BAGHDAD, June 21 (Yonhap) -- European journalists and American workers are being held hostage along with the South Korean kidnap victim by an armed Arab insurgent group, the head of a South Korean trade company here said Monday.
In a telephone interview with the Yonhap News Agency, Kim Choon-ho, head of Gana General Trading Co., at which the South Korean kidnap victim Kim Sun-il has been working, said that there were some 10 other foreign figures being held hostage by the insurgent group.
The South Korean president of the Iraq-based foodstuff supplier claimed that some European journalists and American employees of a U.S.-based security firm were being held hostage along with his employee.
Prayers that he keeps his....
Corroboration, anyone?
Cripes. Start executing al Qaeda prisoners wherever they are held. Ten for every hostage that is taken, starting with whomever they want released first. Videotape it. Show it on every news channel around the world.
Increase Coalition presence by 10% every time a hostage is taken.
Obviously an eye for an eye isn't working. So let's make it 10 bodies for an eye.
I agree, and thus my tagline........
More Held Hostage in Iraq Than S. Korean Employee: Company Head
BAGHDAD, June 21 (Yonhap) -- The head of a South Korean trade company in Iraq whose employee has been abducted by an insurgent group here claimed Monday that there may be as many as 10 other abduction victims held by the Arab insurgent group.
In a telephone interview with the Yonhap News Agency, Kim Choon-ho, president of Gana General Trading Co., said that several local employees of U.S.-based security firm Halliburton, accompanying the South Korean worker at the time of abduction, were kidnapped along with his South Korean employee, Kim Sun-il.
"After contacting the U.S. military on June 17 to find out why Kim Sun-il, who went on a business trip to the U.S. military camp Ribgee, located about 200 kilometers from Baghdad, did not return, I was told that he had already left (the U.S. installation) and found out that he had been kidnapped along with an Iraqi employee," Kim said.
"I also understand that several third-country employees of the U.S. security firm Kellogg, Brown and Root (an affiliate of Halliburton) who were accompanying Kim at the time had also been kidnapped." The South Korean businessman said he tried to undertake his own negotiations with the kidnappers, who claim to belong to an al-Qaida-linked terrorist group, the Tawhid wa al-Jihad.
"We are taking up negotiations with the kidnappers on the release (of hostages) by dispatching an Iraqi employee to the Fallujah area," Kim said. "We heard from the kidnappers that Kim Sun-il was safe." Kim also said that his Iraqi employee who engaged in negotiation talks with the kidnappers reported seeing "European journalists and other security firm workers" being held hostage along with Kim.
Kim said the number of those being held hostage would exceed 10 when considering the number of other hostages claimed by his Iraqi worker.
10 foreigners taken hostage in Iraq
SEOUL, June 21 (Xinhuanet) -- About 10 foreigners are being held hostage along with the South Korean kidnap victim by an armed Arab insurgent group, South Korea 's news agency Yonhap reported on Monday.
The report quoted Kim Choon-ho, head of Gana General Trading Co., at which the South Korean kidnap victim Kim Sun-il has been working, as saying that there were some 10 other foreign figures, including "some European journalists and American employees of a U.S.-based security firm," being held hostage by the insurgent group.
The Arab satellite TV network Al-Jazeera reported on Sunday that an al-Qaida-linked insurgent group kidnapped a South Korean man in Iraq and threatened to behead him if the Seoul government does not scrap its decision to deploy 3,660 troops to northern Iraq.
South Korea already has 660 army engineers and medics operatingin southern Iraq since early last year. They will be moved to northern Iraq in July to prepare for 3,000 more S. Korean troops to be deployed there by October.
The deployment would make South Korea the largest US coalition partner in Iraq after Britain.
Kim Sun-il, a 33-year-old S. Korean national, has been working as an interpreter for Gana General Trading Co. since his arrival in Iraq on June 15 last year. He was held hostage on June 17 whiletraveling aboard a truck with one of his Iraqi fellow workers moving from the US military camp in Ribgee to Fallujah.
President Roh Moo-hyun said Monday that his government will not change its plan to send additional troops to Iraq, despite thekidnapping of a South Korean man in the war-torn Middle East country.
"We need to make efforts to explain (to Iraqis) that our troopswill focus on reconstruction efforts without conducting hostile activities against Iraqi people," presidential spokesman Yoon Tai-young quoted Roh as saying.
That's good news. The ROK Army is tough and mean (when it has to be) in the extreme.
"The ROK Army is tough and mean (when it has to be) in the extreme."
I had a friend some years ago who served with some ROC guys in nam. He always said they were guys you didn't want to f**k around with.
Implying that the kidnappers and hostages are in the city of Fallujah?
Drudge Report carries headline that South Korea cancels decision to send 3,000 troops to Iraq - We have another Spanish partner in peace....
Incorrect previous post.
No. Extract information from the terrorists. Use medicine without malice. Find them, extract more, and "bring justice to them" when they are of no further INTEL use. Run silent. Run deep.
Increase Coalition presence by 10% every time a hostage is taken.
No. Use the proper forces for the mission. Do not arbitrarily increase the number of targets. This is not the American Civil War.
President Bush warned us just after September 11th what this war would be like. There will be more casualties, military and civilian. Pray for our heroes and their families.
The next decision should be to withdraw all American forces from Korea and prepare only an aerial response to NK hostilities.
Jeezus.
What this means though, is that the terorists are running out of arms, explosives and money. It doesn't cost much to kidnap people and cut their heads off. al Sadr's "revolution" in April, which I contended was their last big stand, failed.
Of course you're right. Just venting... since I can't run silent and deep myself... though I'd like to.
'The ROK Army is tough and mean'
It seems that some people soldier because circumstances force them to it.
Other people do so because they love to bear arms. Some cultures are traditionally militaristic and will be so forever, it's in their national character.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.