BEIRUT, Aug 6 (AFP) - Four Lebanese truck drivers went missing in Iraq Friday on the road west from Baghdad past the Sunni Muslim insurgent strongholds of Fallujah and Ramadi, security sources here told AFP.
Lebanese charge d'affaires Hassan Hijazi was in urgent contact with the Iraqi foreign ministry about their fate, the sources added.
A spate of kidnappings has targeted foreign nationals in Iraq. Some have been for ransom, others have been carried out by militant groups demanding that foreign governments or companies terminate their operations in Iraq or see their nationals or staff executed.
The drivers worked for an unnamed private Iraqi company transporting generators used to supplement government-supplied electricity, which is tightly rationed in Iraq.
Two of the drivers were identified as having the family name of Al-Jundi, while the identities of the other two were not yet known.
Their four trucks disappeared along the road between Baghdad and Ramadi, to the west of the Iraqi capital.
Another Lebanese, Antoine Antoun, was abducted last Saturday in Baghdad along with this Iraqi chauffeur by about 40 armed men who raided a small factory he built about two years ago.
Another Lebanese businessman, Vladimir Damaa, was kidnapped the same day, his abductors demanding a ransom of 700,000 dollars.
Iraqi police announced his release on Sunday without divulging the circumstances.
About 10 other Lebanese have been freed against ransom payments in Iraq.
An armed group that called itself the "Brigades of Islamic Anger" killed a Lebanese telecommunications company employee, Hussein Olayyan, in June.