Free Republic

Five Western security contractors kidnapped a year ago in Iraq are still alive, their employer said Monday, stressing that authorities are exerting all efforts to secure their release. The four Americans and an Austrian colleague employed by Kuwait-based Crescent Security Group were among 14 people kidnapped Nov. 16, 2006, by men in Iraqi police uniforms who ambushed a convoy they were escorting near the southern Iraqi border city of Safwan. Crescent managing partner Franco Picco said the company has been working with the FBI to find the men. They are alive and "we do have an idea where they are."...

BASRA, Iraq (AFP) - Iraqi and coalition forces were searching for the five Westerners kidnapped three days ago from near the Kuwaiti border by militiamen dressed in police uniforms. Four US citizens and an Austrian, all working as security guards for a Kuwaiti company, were abducted on Thursday while they were escorting a 49-truck convoy near the southern Iraqi town of Safwan. "The search continues and we have still not been able to locate them," said Mohammed Ali al-Mussawi, chief of operations at the police headquarters of Basra, the southern Iraqi city. On Saturday Mussawi said the police had identified...