Kidnappers threaten to behead Bulgarians, Filipino in Iraq

The kidnappings have increased pressure on Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's government, trying to assert its authority after taking over from US-led occupiers on June 28, but still dependent for security on 160,000 mainly American troops.

Bulgaria, which has contributed 470 troops to the US-led multinational force in Iraq, vowed not to bow to demands by the kidnappers of its nationals, identified by state radio as civilian truck drivers Ivailo Kepov and Georgi Lazov.

Private television channel BTV said the two, working for a Bulgarian company, had unloaded cars from their trucks in the northern city of Mosul and had been on the way home when seized.

"Bulgaria is a stable state with a predictable foreign policy and we cannot expect it would change its foreign policy because of one or another group," Foreign Minister Solomon Passy told state radio in Sofia.

He was speaking the day after a group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, which has already beheaded an American and a South Korean in Iraq, said it would kill the Bulgarians within 24 hours unless US-led forces released prisoners.

The family of Filipino driver Angelo de la Cruz appealed to the Manila government to bring him home as diplomats tried to contact the militants threatening to decapitate him.

Gunmen holding de la Cruz said on Wednesday they would kill him unless the Philippines, a staunch US ally, pulls its force of about 50 humanitarian workers out of Iraq within 72 hours.

Arabic Al Jazeera television showed a tape from Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group in which the two Bulgarians were seen sitting in front of masked and armed captors.

"The group said the Bulgarian government bore responsibility for the safety of its citizens because it has sent troops to Iraq," the Qatar-based satellite channel said.

The United States has branded Zarqawi an al Qaeda ally and its top target in Iraq with a $25 million bounty, blaming him for much of the violence roiling the country.