Bulgaria: Hostages 'still alive'
(CNN) -- The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry says it has information indicating two of its citizens held hostage in Iraq are alive, although a reported deadline set by the kidnappers had expired.
The ministry identified the hostages as Ivailo Kepov and Georgi Lazov and said they are truckers.
Two diplomats from Sofia, the capital, were in Baghdad to work on freeing the men, the Foreign Ministry said Sunday.
Bulgaria does not have a diplomatic mission in Iraq.
On Thursday, Al-Jazeera aired a video showing an Iraqi insurgent group threatening to behead the two hostages within 24 hours if the United States did not release all prisoners in Iraq.
Video showed the two Bulgarians sitting down with their hands tied, while three armed masked men stood behind them.
The insurgents identified themselves as the Unification and Holy War group.
Bulgaria, which deploys troops in Iraq, has lost six soldiers in the conflict.
The kidnappings have increased pressure on ex-King Simeon Saxe-Coburg's government which is trying to move his country of eight million people away from its communist past and into the realm of developed Western states, Reuters reported.
"Everyone is praying," read the front-page headline of the influential Trud daily, saying the two drivers had traveled to the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, where they were kidnapped, because of desperate poverty at home.
The Bulgarian government says two citizens held hostage in Iraq are alive, even though a deadline set by the kidnappers has expired.
