Egyptian diplomat freed

Kausar Perveen (R), the wife of Pakistani hostage Azad Hussein who is held by insurgents in Iraq, cries as her children show a picture of her husband in Islamabad yesterday. Perveen along with her five children has appealed for the release of her husbands on the grounds of Islam and humanity. PHOTO: AFP

Fears also ran high for two Jordanian hostages, who worked as drivers for a company supplying US forces in Iraq, and an Iraqi being held by Islamic militants along with the two Pakistanis.

Meanwhile, Pakistan issued a fresh appeal for the release of two nationals threatened with death by their Islamic militant abductors.

Islamabad said the two had no connection with international politics and their kidnapping had put the Pakistani people in deep agony.

Azad Hussein Khan, a maintenance engineer and Sajjad Naeem, 29, a driver, were kidnapped on Friday by a group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq.

The Arab satellite news channel Al-Jazeera has broadcast a video from the group, showing the hostages' identity cards and photographs.

Islamabad said the two were not working for US forces and that Pakistan had not made any commitment to station troops in Iraq.

"We appeal to the captors to release the two innocent Pakistanis in the name of humanity" said a foreign ministry spokesman.

Late Monday, Egyptian diplomat Mohamed Mamdouh Kotb was released after 72 hours in captivity. His captors told the father of three that he was free to go because of his character and religious faith.

"I am free and already at the Egyptian interests section in Baghdad," Kotb, Cairo's third ranking diplomat in Baghdad, told AFP by telephone. "I thank God and all those who worked for my release here in Iraq and Egypt."

Just minutes before, Al-Jazeera broadcast a video apparently showing him being released and even hugging one of his kidnappers.

Yet despite Kotb's release, more than 20 captives are known to be missing or held for ransom, in Iraq's perilous hostage drama buoyed by Monday's snatching of the two Jordanians.

A colleague at Daoud and Partners named the victims as Ahmed Salameh Hassan and Fayez Saad al-Adwan. The firm has been transporting food to US troops in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion and is headed by an American.