Four Lebanese drivers taken hostage in Iraq
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-08-06 21:55

Four Lebanese truck drivers have been taken hostage in Iraq, a source in Beirut's Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

The source said the four were captured on Thursday while driving on a road between Baghdad and Ramadi, a volatile region west of the capital where resistance to the presence of foreigners in Iraq is particularly strong.

He had no information about who had taken them hostage or who they worked for.

A spokesman in Baghdad's Interior Ministry said the ministry was aware of the reports but had no further information.

There are now five Lebanese nationals missing in Iraq. Businessman Antoine Antoun was kidnapped along with a Syrian driver last Friday, according to his relatives in north Lebanon. Talks are ongoing to secure his release.

Several Lebanese in Iraq have been taken hostage and released in recent months. Some of their captors demanded ransoms or accused the men of working too closely with U.S. forces in Iraq. In June, one Lebanese hostage was killed.

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