Families of Nepal hostages in Iraq wait for news

The families said the men had traveled to Iraq in hopes of escaping poverty in the Himalayan kingdom, which is ravaged by a Maoist insurgency.

"I told him not to go there but he refused my advice. He told me, 'There may be conflict there, but there is also conflict here, so I should go earn some money,'" said Jit Bahadur Khadka, whose son Ramesh Khadka went missing.

Family members, who are manual labourers, were in tears as they clutched a portrait of their son at their modest home in Lele on the outskirts of Kathmandu.

The Nepalese government says it has little information about the hostages as it has no diplomatic representation in Iraq.