Militant group takes 6 civilians hostage in Iraq
Latest killing brings U.S. military deaths to 901
 |  Three masked gunmen are seen in front of a multinational group of hostages. |
| |
|  VIDEO |
 New hostages taken on a bloody day.
 British Prime Minister Tony Blair insists the decision to go to war was right.
 Angelo de la Cruz is on his way back to the Philippines.
|
|
(CNN) -- An obscure militant group in Iraq holding six foreign truckers hostage said one man will be beheaded every three days if the truckers' employer fails to leave the country.
The six hostages -- two from Kenya, three from India and one from Egypt -- and three masked gunmen were shown in a video aired on the Arabic-language network Al Arabiya.
A spokesman for the militant group, which calls itself Black Flags, demanded that the companies or countries the men are affiliated with pull their personnel from Iraq. Kenya, India and Egypt do not have troops in Iraq.
The six work for a Kuwaiti trucking company. The militants said one hostage will be beheaded every 72 hours -- the first on Saturday -- if the demand isn't met.
It said that any Kuwaiti company that deals with Americans will be attacked by Iraqi insurgents.
In photographs given to The Associated Press, the hostages are standing behind three seated, masked gunmen.
The news was much better for a former hostage who had been taken by another militant group.
Angelo dela Cruz, a 46-year-old Filipino truck driver, returned to Manila on Thursday aftering being reunited with his wife and brother in the United Arab Emirates. (Full story)
Kidnappers had threatened to behead dela Cruz, who was taken hostage on July 7, if the Philippines did not withdraw its forces from Iraq.
Rumsfeld: Guard tours will not be extended
U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said Wednesday that the United States has no plans to extend the tours of National Guard soldiers posted in Iraq past their current two-year terms.
"However, never say never. We are at war," Rumsfeld cautioned at an afternoon press conference at the Pentagon.
He also addressed criticism that the Bush administration continues to maintain too few troops in Iraq.
"Commanders on the ground are the ones that are making the recommendations," said Rumsfeld, adding that it is an "urban myth" that there is discontent inside the Pentagon over troop levels.
The secretary dismissed the disagreement between the administration's stance on troop levels and that of Republican Sen. John McCain, who has long called for more U.S. troops in Iraq, as a "difference of view."
Meanwhile north of Baghdad, a U.S. soldier was killed by a roadside bomb while on patrol early Wednesday, according to a 1st Infantry Division spokesman, bringing the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq to 901.
The latest death came when the 1st Infantry Division soldier's Bradley fighting vehicle was hit around midnight in the city of Duluiyah, Master Sgt. Robert Powell said. The soldier was the fifth U.S. military member to be killed in the past 24 hours.
Of the 901 U.S. troops who have died in the Iraq war, 667 died in combat and 234 in non-combat incidents.
On Tuesday, two Marines and two U.S. soldiers were killed in action in Anbar province, according to coalition statements.
The Marines assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force were killed in separate incidents during security and stability operations.
The slain soldiers were attached to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, the coalition said.
Sprawling Anbar province, which includes the troubled cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, has been the scene of fierce fighting.
Other developments
A huge weapons cache, including 80 mortars, 110 rockets and 123 mortar rounds, was found in western Najaf, provincial Gov. Adnan Zurufi said Wednesday. Zurufi offered a half-million Iraqi dinar reward for reliable information on weapons caches and a million dinar reward for information on terror networks in Iraq.Four people were killed Wednesday in a car bombing in central Baghdad, authorities said. An Interior Ministry spokesman said the bomb exploded in a section of town called Baghdad Al-Jadeeda. The explosion was near a swimming facility and was not a suicide bombing, the spokesman said.Five members of the Turkmen National Front were wounded Wednesday in a drive-by shooting in western Mosul, a Ninevah province police official said. At least three gunmen attacked the group headquarters with machine guns. Monday, a TNF political official was shot dead in Mosul.Two Iraqi patients were killed and four were wounded Wednesday when a rocket-propelled grenade struck a hospital, according to a Health Ministry official. Saad al-Amili told CNN the RPG hit the the surgery recovery floor of the Medical City Hospital in Baghdad.A National Guardsman just back from a tour of duty in Iraq won $143,000 a year for life on a state lottery scratch ticket, The Associated Press reported. John Morrissey, 42, told the AP that he is in bankruptcy and the winnings will help him to pay for his daughter's college education.
Copyright 2004 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
