MANILA, Dec 23 (AFP) - Two Filipinos were among the 69 people wounded in the blast at a US military base in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the Foreign Affairs Department said Thursday as other Filipinos sought to leave the area.
The two Filipino civilian workers were wounded in the blast that killed 22 people at a US military dining hall. They are in stable condition and receiving care at a US military hospital, the department said in a statement.
In the wake of the blast, 20 of the Filipino civilian workers on the base asked to be repatriated and 14 have since been flown out to Adana, Turkey, by a Turkish subcontractor. They will later be flown to Manila, the department said in a statement.
Separately, Labor Secretary Patricia Santo Tomas expressed optimism that a Filipino worker held hostage by Iraqi militants would be freed before year's end.
"Although I cannot discuss the finer points of the negotiations with the kidnappers, we are hoping that (the hostage Roberto) Tarongoy will be released before new year," Santo Tomas said.
Tarongoy, an accountant, was kidnapped along with an American, a Nepalese and three Iraqis on November 1. They were seized by armed men who barged into the Baghdad office of the Saudi Arabian trading firm employing them.
The Nepalese and Iraqis have since been freed but Tarongoy and the American have remained in captivity.
A key ally of the United States in its fight against terrorism, the Philippines was among the first Asian countries to back the US-led invasion of Iraq.
Ties soured in July when Manila pulled out its token force from Iraq to save the life of a Filipino truck driver kidnapped by militants. The truck driver was freed after the pullout.
The government has banned the further deployment of Filipino workers in Iraq but about 6,000 Filipinos are believed to still be working there, mostly in US military camps. Many of them have defied the ban and slipped into Iraq illegally.
12/23/2004 09:32 GMT - AFP