Militants Seek Edict on Iraq Kidnappings

BAGHDAD, Iraq - An Iraqi militant group appealed Sunday to an influential Sunni Muslim organization for an edict on whether the kidnapping of foreigners who work for occupation forces is acceptable under Islam.

The appeal came in a video aired on the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya satellite channel, which showed a masked man reading a statement seeking a "fatwa" from the Association of Muslim Scholars.

"We are confident that all the Islamic resistance in Iraq will abide it if it was in the interest of Islam, Jihad and Iraq," said the man, who identified himself only as a member of Holders of the Black Banners.

The group recently kidnapped seven truck drivers, demanding their employer stop working in Iraq. The drivers were released after weeks in captivity.

The Association of Muslim Scholars had no immediate comment.

Militants waging a 16-month insurgency have increasingly turned to kidnapping to force coalition forces and contractors from the country. More than 100 foreigners have been abducted since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2002 and many have been executed.

On Sunday the body of an Egyptian man was discovered in northern Iraq.

Iraqi National Guard Maj. Gen. Anwar Mohammed Amin said the body was found near Beiji, 150 miles north of Baghdad. The man’s hands were bound with a rope and it appeared he had been beaten.

Amin said identification found on the body showed the man was an Egyptian citizen.

Officials at the Egyptian Embassy in Baghdad said they had no immediate information about the remains.

On Saturday, militants threatened to behead a Turkish truck driver if his employers and a Kuwaiti contractor did not leave Iraq within 48 hours.

And France’s foreign minister, Michel Barnier, returned home from the Middle East without winning the release of two French journalists held hostage since mid-August. (AP)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63298-2004Sep5.html