Saudi plan would send Muslim troops to Iraq
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 U.S., Saudis discuss sending Muslim troops to Iraq.
 Baquba hit by suicide attack. Matthew Chance reports.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi Thursday praised a Saudi plan that would send Muslim troops to Iraq to help stem fighting that took more than 100 lives this week.
Allawi met Thursday with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and accepted an invitation to visit the White House.
He called on Muslim and Arab troops to close ranks against Islamic extremism.
"These terrorists and their conduct is far away from the values of Islam and Arab values," Allawi said. "The participation of Arab and Muslim states is important not only to support Iraq -- Iraq will be able to overcome its difficulties -- but it is important for the region to have a decisive position and decisive role against these groups that threaten the stability of the countries in the region.
"We have to stand together to confront these groups and be conscious of the Arab role and the Islamic role that should be the movement and the power behind that."
Under the proposed Saudi plan, any new Arab and Muslim troops would supplement coalition troops, not replace them, but could reduce the need for so many troops as security is restored, according to a State Department official. The Saudi initiative would involve Islamic nations that do not border Iraq, meaning Saudi troops would not be included. (Full story)
Later, the Iraqi delegation arrived in the United Arab Emirates, where Iraqi Planning Minister Mehdi al-Hafidh told reporters that the Saudis told them they are willing to invest $1 billion in Iraq.
At the news conference, Powell said the United States welcomes the plan, but stressed "these are preliminary ideas" that Washington "will be examining." He also noted there are many unanswered questions regarding the chain of command of such a force. The United States is unlikely to cede command of the multinational force before American troops leave Iraq.
The meeting came a day after at least 118 people died in widespread violence across Iraq. The deadliest attack Wednesday happened in Baquba, where at least 70 were killed and 56 wounded in a suicide car bombing.
Pakistani hostages reportedly killed
Al-Jazeera on Wednesday reported two Pakistanis were killed by their kidnappers, a group calling itself The Islamic Army.
Pakistan's ambassador to Iraq Mohammed Iftikhar Anjum said Thursday he learned of the killings from Al-Jazeera and is calling on the killers to hand over the bodies to the families.
The group said it had released a third hostage -- an Iraqi -- because "he repented." The three men were working for the Kuwaiti company Al-Tamimi when their capture was announced Monday. (Full story)
Authorities are still working to free an assortment of hostages, as Thursday brought news of another abduction.
Arabic language network Al-Jazeera reported a Somali truck driver had been kidnapped by Unification and Jihad -- a group that has claimed responsibility for several kidnappings across Iraq and claims insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as its leader.
The network reported the man works for a Kuwaiti company, which has been given 48 hours to withdraw from Iraq or have its driver beheaded.
The hostage-takers of two Jordanian truckers abducted on Monday have extended the deadline for their demands to be met, according to news footage from the militants aired on Turkish TV.
"We decided to delay the beheading operation," members of a group calling itself the Mujahedeen Corps said on the tape.
The deadline was extended from Wednesday for three days, according to a message issued by the group. The kidnappers have demanded that the drilling and contracting company the men work for in Iraq stop working with the U.S. military.
Meanwhile, seven truck drivers who work for the Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company -- three Kenyans, three Indians and an Egyptian -- are being held by a group called the Islamic Secret Army, Black Banners Brigades.
Other developments
A group calling itself the Islamic Unification has posted a message on its Web site warning Islamic and Arab nations against sending troops to Iraq, saying it would "hit with an iron fist all the traitors who cooperate with the Zionists."An entity calling itself the Death Group took four Jordanian workers in Iraq as hostages, according to Arab language television network Dubai TV, which aired video of the four. The group did not make specific demands, but conveyed in a statement via Dubai TV that all Jordanian interests in Iraq and elsewhere are going to be the group's targets.In an interview broadcast Thursday on Arabic-language satellite news channel Al-Jazeera, an Iraqi official said captured Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was suffering from a chronic prostate infection, according to The Associated Press. (Full story)A U.S. 1st Infantry Division soldier has died of wounds suffered in an attack Thursday on a multinational force patrol near Hawija in northern Iraq. Attackers used small arms, the Coalition Press Information Center said, and the soldier was pronounced dead at a military medical facility. The report brings the number of U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war to 913 -- 678 related to hostile attacks, 235 in non-hostile incidents, according to the U.S. military.The Polish Embassy in Baghdad said one of its soldiers died Thursday in southern Iraq. No other details were immediately available.CNN's Matthew Chance, Alphonso Van Marsh, Elise Labott and Andrea Koppel contributed to this report.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
