List Of Foreigners Known To Be Held Hostage Or Missing In Iraq

BAGHDAD, July 23 (AFP) - After confirmation that an Egyptian diplomat was kidnapped by an armed group in Iraq on Friday, some 18 other people, all but one a foreigner, remain held hostage or missing in Iraq.
Here is a list of those known to be hostages or missing as of Friday:

-- Seven truck drivers, including three Indians, three Kenyans and one Egyptian, were taken hostage on Wednesday by a group calling itself "Holders of the Black Banners".
The militant group has demanded the Kuwaiti company for which the seven were working leave Iraq.
The three Kenyans have been identified as Jalal Mohamed Awadh, Faiz Khamis Salim and Ibrahim Khamis Idd.
The three Indians were named as Antaryami, Tilak Raj and Sukhdev Singh, while the Egyptian hostage was Mohammed Ali al-Masri.

-- A Turkish driver named only as Mehmet from Cizre, in southeastern Turkey, was abducted over the weekend in northern Iraq after masked gunmen attacked a convoy of eight Turkish trucks transporting fuel to the US army in Iraq.

-- Two Bulgarians, Georgy Lazov and Ivailo Kepov were taken hostage on July 8 by a group called the Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War). Sofia on Thursday confirmed that the body of Lazov had been found in the Tigris river. Kepov is still missing.

-- An Iraqi interpreter working with US forces in Iraq was taken hostage in the troubled town of Ramadi, west of Baghdad.

-- A US soldier: Private First Class Keith Matthew Maupin, 20, went missing during an attack on a convoy near Baghdad on April 9. He was paraded on Al-Jazeera television and his kidnappers have demanded the release of insurgents taken prisoner by US-led forces.
Another soldier, Sergeant Elmer Krause, 40, also went missing during this attack.
Two American employees of the Halliburton firm and its subsidiary, KBR, which is carrying out numerous oil projects, Timothy Bell and William Bradley, are also still missing following the attack.
On May 6, a blindfolded man described as having been kidnapped by an Iraqi group, the Brigades of Islamic Anger, was shown on Al-Arabiya television.
"My name is Elias, from Denver, in Colorado," said the man on the video. Washington said it believed the hostage was American. It was not clear whether he was one of the missing four.

-- An Iraqi-born Canadian, Rifaat Mohammed Rifaat, 41, who worked for a Saudi company repairing Abu Ghraib prison, west of Baghdad, has been missing since April 8.

-- A Jordanian businessman, Wael Mamduh, was abducted from a hotel in the southern city of Basra on April 11 by men disguised in police uniforms.

-- An Arab hostage, speaking with a Kuwaiti accent, was shown in a video on Al-Jazeera television on June 5, warning lorry drivers not to work for the "infidel" US-led occupation forces.
The man said he was called "Saydan Saadun" and had been driving a lorry-load of supplies from the emirate when he was caught on the motorway just outside the Iraqi capital.