by Jay Deshmukh
BAGHDAD, July 26 (AFP) - Iraqi insurgents stayed a threat to start executing a group of foreign captives Monday, but the hostage crisis deepened as two Jordanians were snatched and militants threatened to behead two Pakistanis.
A video shown by Al-Arabiya television of seven foreign truck drivers being held hostage confirmed a statement received by AFP staying an execution threat against the group of seven foreign hostages as negotiations proceed.
On the tape, two masked men stood behind the hostages, all dressed in traditional white robes, as a third militant read the statement.
The message said the Holders of the Black Banners had agreed to stave off its threat to start executing its hostages from 1600 GMT Monday.
"The leadership of the Islamic Secret Army, of which the Holders of the Black Banners is a division, has decided to extend the deadline in response to the plea of mediator Sheikh Hisham al-Dulaimi to continue negotiations."
The three Indians, three Kenyans and Egyptian, all employees of a Kuwaiti transport hauler, were snatched Wednesday. Their kidnappers had issued two deadlines threatening to kill them one-by-one unless their firm leaves Iraq.
The statement warned New Delhi against making any irresponsible comments about insurgents in Iraq if it wanted to save the lives of its three nationals.
The group issued no new deadline.
The 11th-hour reprieve brought cheers from the families of the kidnapped Indians at home.
"This is good news. Very good news. The entire village prayed today and we shall continue," said Ram Dass, great uncle of hostage Antaryami, who uses one name.
"We have no complaints with the Indian government. They are trying their best ... but let us also not make irresponsible comments," he added, speaking to AFP by telephone from his village of Dehlon, some 430 kilometres (270 miles) north of New Delhi.
In Kenya, the hope of fresh negotiations prompted the government to dispatch two diplomats to Kuwait to help broker the release of its three truckers. Their families, however, looked for assistance from France.
"If France can appoint an official (mediator), it will be good," Mambo Idd, the elder brother to hostage Ibrahim Khamis Idd told AFP in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa.
"France did not participate in the (military) operations in Iraq," he said, explaining his request for help from Paris, although he welcomed Dulaimi's mediation.
Pakistan also appealed for the Islamic Army not to kill its two citizens after the group said issued a statement saying it had investigated its acptives and "it was decided to execute the two" Pakistanis.
The Arab television Al-Jazeera network carried the statement from their kidnappers. It showed footage of the Pakistanis' identity cards, including their photographs and indentifying them as Azad Hussein Khan and Sajjad Naeem.
"One of the two Pakistanis works as a technician for the American forces and the second is a driver for these forces," said the kidnappers.
A date was not given for the threatened execution.
Islamabad quickly appealed on the group to free the two men, saying they had nothing to do with international politics. "They are innocent people, they should be released immediately," foreign office spokesman Masood Khan told AFP.
Naeem's sobbing mother was desperate. "My son was the breadearner for three families and they cannot survive without him," she said.
"My son went to Iraq for work. He has no political motives and he should be released in the name of Islam and humanity," her husband added.
Meanwhile, fellow employees of the Jordanian company Daoud and Partners told AFP said two Jordanian drivers working for a firm which supplies the US army were kidnapped Monday.
One of their colleagues, asking not to be named, named the kidnap victims as Ahmed Salameh Hassan and Fayez Saad al-Adwan.
Daoud and Partners, most of whose workers are Indian, has been transporting food supplies to US troops in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. It has also embarked on a construction project.
The company is headed by an American national, the sources said.
The hostage crisis, in which more than 20 captives are known to be still missing or held for ransom, has embarrassed Iraq's interim government during its first month in power following the US-led occupation.