BAGHDAD, August 1 (AFP) - Kidnappers threatening to execute seven foreign truck drivers in Iraq had apparently neither killed nor released any of them Sunday despite a missed deadline, as US forces bombed Fallujah, stalking the kidnappers' al-Qaeda-linked leader.
A total of 26 hostages were believed held by rebels using kidnapping as a tactic to drive foreigners from Iraq.
At least six Iraqis were killed and 30 injured in what appeared to be a new US bombardment of Fallujah west of Baghdad, hospital sources said.
The violence came less than 48 hours after fighting in Fallujah left 20 insurgents dead, according to the US military. The city's main hospital said 13 were killed and as many wounded.
The US military said it had conducted at least seven air strikes over the past 40 days on what it said were suspected hideouts of loyalists of alleged al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, thought to be instigating the kidnappings.
The raids, most in southern Fallujah, have killed dozens of people. The US military said it killed dozens of suspected Al-Zarqawi loyalists.
Arabic leaflets dropped over Fallujah asked residents to divulge Zarqawi's whereabouts.
The seven truck drivers -- three Indians, three Kenyans and an Egyptian -- were kidnapped on July 21 by a group calling itself "The Holders of the Black Banners." The group is demanding their Kuwaiti employer leave Iraq.
A tribal mediator said Saturday he was optimistic that the seven foreigners would be released, even after a deadline their abductors set to execute one of the Indians expired at 1500 GMT Saturday.
New Delhi said it was considering evacuating about 6,000 of its nationals from Iraq and rushed a top diplomat to Baghdad to secure the release of the three Indian drivers.
A go-between said Saturday their Kuwaiti employer was ready to compensate victims of US military action in Fallujah and pull out of Iraq to spare the truckers' lives.
Sheikh Hisham al-Dulaimi spoke after meeting with Mehdi Saleh, an Iraqi representative of the Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport company in Baghdad.
The group linked to al-Zarqawi also said it had kidnapped two drivers for a Turkish firm in Iraq and threatened to behead them in 48 hours if their employer did not leave Iraq, Al-Jazeera Arabic television reported.
Insurgent groups in Iraq have made hostage-taking a strategic tool to drive US allies out of the country. The Philippines withdrew its troops to save one of its nationals held hostage.
A purported Islamist group in Iraq has warned that any Muslim troops sent to the country will be considered "occupation forces," in an implicit threat they will be attacked, Al-Jazeera television reported Saturday.
The "Battalions of the '20 revolution, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq" announced "it would consider any foreign forces, be they Arab or Islamic, occupation forces," Al-Jazeera said.
On Thursday, Zarqawi's group in a statement threatened to attack any Arab or Muslim force deployed in Iraq as proposed by Saudi Arabia and welcomed by the United States.
Algeria has no plans to send troops to Iraq, Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem said Saturday.
NATO countries had agreed Friday to send a team to Iraq to begin training Iraqi security forces.
Zarqawi, who has a 25-million-dollar bounty on his head, is blamed for some of the bloodiest car bombings and attacks in Iraq.
Meanwhile, another group, "Death Squad of Mujahedeen of Iraq," said it was holding four Jordanian drivers, but that no one had contacted them to seek their release, Dubai Television reported.
On Thursday, the network aired a video in which the group called on the Jordanian people to pressure their government to end its support for US-led forces.
In the southern Iraqi city of Karbala, a senior aide to Moqtada Sadr was arrested, said a spokesman for the radical Shiite Muslim cleric, threatening to provoke a fresh standoff with the authorities.
Sheikh Mithal al-Hasnawi, Sadr's representative in Karbala, was arrested along with his brother in a joint raid by US-led multinational forces and the Iraqi National Guard, Sheikh Raed al-Kadhemi told AFP.