Militants take Egyptian diplomat hostage
Report: Head of state-owned construction company in Baghdad kidnapped
 |  A videotape of masked militants surrounding Momdoh Kotb was aired Friday on the Arabic language network Al-Jazeera. |
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 More hostages seized as fighting rages in Ramadi and elsewhere.
 Indian hostage's family is distraught.
 Freed hostage gets hero's welcome in the Philippines.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Militants in Iraq displayed eight hostages -- seven truck drivers and the third-highest Egyptian diplomat in Iraq -- on videotape broadcast by the Arabic-language TV network Al-Jazeera.
In the tape broadcast Friday, masked men calling themselves the Lion of God Brigades surrounded Momdoh Kotb.
The previously unknown group said it took the diplomat hostage in response to Egypt's offer to help Iraq with security.
The Egyptian Embassy in Baghdad confirmed Kotb's identity, and a spokesman said the embassy was in "shock" over the incident.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher El Sayed said his country has no plans to "send any troops or military officials to Baghdad."
He said the hostage-takers "kidnapped an Egyptian diplomat working in the Egyptian Embassy in Baghdad who is working on building a brotherly relationship between two peoples."
Meanwhile gunmen kidnapped the head of an Iraqi government-owned construction company in Baghdad Saturday, an Interior Ministry spokesman told The Associated Press.
Police Col. Adnan Abdel-Rahman said unidentified armed men riding in two cars snatched Ra'ad Adnan, the general director of Al-Mansour Contracting Co., as he drove through the southeastern Baghdad area of Zaieuna.
Abdel-Rahman told AP that the kidnappers blocked Adnan's vehicle with their cars. His company carries out construction contracts for Iraqi government ministries.
The militant group who kidnapped the Egyptian diplomat has made no demands.
But other militants, who call themselves the Black Banners, are making new demands for the hostages they are holding: three Indians, three Kenyans and an Egyptian. (Full story)
A masked member stood in front of the hostages and read a statement demanding the truck drivers' employer, the Kuwait and Gulf Transportation Company (KGL), pay the families of those killed in clashes with U.S. forces in Fallujah, and that all Iraqi prisoners held in American prisons be released within 48 hours.
The hostage-takers originally demanded the men's employers or native countries pull their personnel from Iraq or one hostage would be beheaded every 72 hours beginning Saturday.
Kenya, India and Egypt do not have troops in Iraq.
In a statement released late Friday, KGL said it has "no presence whatsoever in Iraq and that the company was only transporting material and equipment urgently needed by the Iraqi people."
A KGL spokesman in Kuwait told CNN, "We are doing everything we can to secure the safe return of our drivers."
The company statement said KGL "is ready to take any measure to ensure the release of the hostages and that it is now negotiating with the kidnappers to free them as soon as possible."
In response to the kidnapping, the government of Kenya asked its citizens to leave Iraq, a government spokesman said.
The Kenyans are Faiz Khamis Salim, 39, Jalal Mohamed Awadh, 39, and Ibrahim Khamis Idd, 48. All are from Mombasa and are married with children.
A Web site message purportedly from a group linked to suspected terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi warned Muslims and Arab countries not to send troops to Iraq. (Full story)
The message also said that the militants "are warning for the last time" that they will "hit with an iron hand all those who will support the Americans/Allawi and his group," referring to Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
Allawi said last week that he had sent formal requests to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Morocco and Oman for troops.
Strike in Fallujah
Early Friday morning, U.S.-led forces in Iraq launched a strike in Fallujah on about a dozen militants suspected of ties to al-Zarqawi, according to a statement.
The attack around 6:30 a.m. Friday was based on "multiple sources of intelligence," the statement said.
"The anti-Iraqi forces were struck while in the courtyard of a house; the house was left intact," according to the statement from Brig. Gen. Erv Lessel, deputy director of operations.
The statement did not say if the militants were killed. A Ministry of Health official told CNN at least one person was injured in the attack.
The al-Zarqawi network is suspected of many attacks against U.S.-led forces in Iraq. Unification and Jihad, a group that also has claimed responsibility for several kidnappings across Iraq, claims the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi is its leader.
Last month, the United States increased the bounty for al-Zarqawi to $25 million.
In late June, U.S.-led forces launched four strikes on suspected al-Zarqawi safe houses in Fallujah. Friday's strike was carried out in coordination with the Iraqi interim government, according to the coalition statement.
Fatal minibus accident in Baghdad
A minibus collided with a U.S. tank Thursday night, killing nine Iraqis and injuring 10 others, according to a U.S. military spokesman.
The minibus tried to pass another vehicle in Baghdad, the spokesman said. No U.S. forces were injured.
On Friday morning in Baghdad, in the Kadhmiya district, a roadside bomb hit a different minibus, killing two Iraqis -- the driver and a girl -- and wounding three others, according to Iraqi police.
In other violence Friday, an Iraqi general was shot and killed in Mosul as he was on his way to Friday prayers, an Iraqi official said.
Gen. Salim Blaish retired under Saddam Hussein but had recently returned to military service, a spokesman for the Mosul police said. A neighbor who was accompanying the general was also killed.
Two U.S. soldiers were killed Thursday when a roadside bomb ripped through a U.S. military convoy in Samarra, north of Baghdad, according to a U.S. military spokesman. One soldier was wounded, the spokesman said.
With the deaths, 906 U.S. forces have died in the Iraq war -- 672 combat-related deaths and 234 noncombat deaths.
Al-Sadr reappears at Kufa mosque
Maverick Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr led prayers at the Kufa mosque south of Baghdad for the first time in two months, The Associated Press reported. Al-Sadr criticized insurgents who have beheaded at least three foreigners since April, according to the AP.
"We condemn what some people are doing regarding the beheading of prisoners, and it is illegal according to Islamic law," al-Sadr said, according to the AP. "Anybody doing this is a criminal, and we will punish him according to Islamic law."
The AP report said the killings of citizens from the United States, South Korea and Bulgaria has been mostly claimed by Sunni Muslims -- rivals of al-Sadr's Shiite faction.
Al-Sadr's Mehdi Army and U.S. troops battled for weeks, but fighting died down in June in the flash point towns of Najaf and Kufa.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
