BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 17, 2006
Status Of Abducted Americans A Mystery
Search Continues In Iraq After Conflicting Reports Swirl Over Safety Of Four Americans And An Austrian
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Play CBS Video Video Search For Contractors Goes On A group of private contractors were kidnapped as their convoy headed into Iraq. An Iraqi official says there has been a ransom demand for the four Americans and one Austrian. Elizabeth Palmer reports.
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Video "Shadow Army" In Iraq Tens of thousands of civilians deployed in Iraq provide logistical support for the troops, but face grave danger as they transport supplies around the country. Armen Keteyian has more details.
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Video Brazen Kidnapping In Baghdad Dozens of people were kidnapped at an Iraqi Education Ministry building. As Elizabeth Palmer reports, the kidnappings raise new questions about the government's commitment to reining in militias.
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In this undated photo released by the St. Louis Park Police Dept., former St. Louis Park police officer Paul Reuben is shown. Reuben, 39, was among four American security contractors and an Austrian co-worker escorting a convoy that was hijacked, his brother, Patrick Reuben, told KSTP-TV and the Star Tribune. (AP Photo/St. Louis Park Police)
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British soldiers patrol in Zubair, near Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, on Nov. 17, 2006. British and U.S. troops were searching for four abducted Americans whose convoy was hijacked Thursday in Safwan, an Iraqi city near the Kuwaiti border. (AP Photo)
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An Iraqi firefighter, left, arrives at the scene following an explosion in Baghdad on Nov. 16, 2006. (AP Photo)
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Interactive Held Hostage Details on foreign workers and soldiers captured by insurgents in Iraq.
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Interactive Battle For Iraq The government, the insurgency, key players, background and photos.
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Who's Who Iraq Insurgency More on the militant groups behind the insurgency in Iraq and their motivations.
British soldiers and U.S. military helicopters fought with gunmen in the area where the Crescent Security Group convoy was hijacked, and coalition forces searched for the hostages, according to an official for Crescent Security in Kuwait. He would speak only on condition of anonymity.
British military spokesman Capt. Tane Dunlop said the British and U.S. assault targeted gunmen who had been attacking coalition forces in the past few days. He said the coalition force had been attacked by about 10 gunmen from farm buildings.
The British and U.S. forces returned fire, killing at least two of the gunmen, Dunlop said in a telephone interview from Basra.
In London, a spokeswoman at Britain's Ministry of Defense said, “We were looking to arrest individuals involved in terrorist activities.” She said the raid was unrelated to the Crescent Security hostages.
Neither Crescent Security nor the U.S. government has identified the missing Americans.
However, a State Department official informed the family of Paul Reuben, 39, a former suburban Minneapolis police officer who was working as a security contractor in Iraq, that he was among those captured, his brother, Patrick Reuben, told the Star Tribune newspaper and KSTP-TV in St. Paul, Minn.
Relatives identified Paul Reuben, 39, as an “easygoing, fun-loving type of guy” who was ready to come home.
"He had that classic teddy bear disposition that made people like and care about him," St. Louis Park (Minn.) Police Chief John D. Luse said.
Patrick Reuben said his brother had been in Iraq for about two years working for Crescent Security and intended to earn enough money to buy a house and a Hummer and then come home.
Their mother said Friday that she hopes the men holding her son "remember their own mothers."
"I want them to think what it's like for a mother to want her son back," Johnnie Mae Reuben told The Associated Press. "I want my son back."
Crescent Security Group works mostly in Iraq, and its operations are based in Kuwait. Many of its managers and employees are American.
A U.S. Embassy official, who refused to be identified because he was not authorized to release the information, said the hijacked convoy included 43 heavy trucks and six security vehicles. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Thursday that preliminary reports suggested the convoy included about 19 vehicles.
The attack took place in Dhi Qar Province, where Italy formally handed over security responsibility to Iraqi forces in late September.
At least 52 Iraqi deaths were reported nationwide Friday. Fifteen were killed by gun or mortar fire and 37 bodies were found dumped with multiple gunshot wounds, many showing signs of torture. The U.S. military also reported the death of one soldier who was killed Thursday in Diyala Province, northeast of Baghdad.
As violence in Iraq continued to spiral out of control, a crisis was brewing for Iraq's Shiite-led government, with an official close to the prime minister disavowing an arrest warrant issued against the country's most influential Sunni leader.
The official, with intimate knowledge of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's thinking, said the Iraqi leader had not known his interior minister was planning to call for the arrest of the revered leader of the Association of Muslim Scholars, Sheik Harith al-Dhari.
"We will work so that the arrest warrant is not acted upon," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the internal Shiite conflict.
For his part, al-Dhari said the government's bid to arrest him was illegal, and his spokesman urged Sunni politicians to quit the parliament and government.
The brewing political crisis threatened the already shaky al-Maliki government and could provoke an even more violent surge in Iraq's sectarian conflict as the country teeters on the edge of civil war.
The new upheaval began late Thursday when Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani, a Shiite, announced on state television that he had issued the arrest warrant on grounds that al-Dhari allegedly incited terrorism and violence.
The move enraged moderate members of Iraq's Sunni minority, who had already threatened over recent weeks to walk out of government and parliament and take up arms. They have charged the al-Maliki government with discrimination and failure to act on measures important to the Sunni community and necessary for national reconciliation.
Sunni anger was clear throughout the country with politicians and demonstrations condemning the warrant. A Sunni politician said the Iraqi Accordance Front, a Sunni bloc that holds 44 seats in parliament, will hold a meeting Saturday to discuss how it will react.
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Add a Comment See all 111 Comments
- no way...you better be joking
- Reply to this comment
- moonie, you and feelie have had too many rice cakes today. Tomorrow will be better.
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- SHE PASSED AWAY!
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- here's what i want to know: WHERE THE HELL IS LARA LOGAN???? why is she suddenly no longer covering Iraq? she's a big part of why i watch the cbs evening news at all
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- THE ALASKA WE OWN......LOL
- Reply to this comment
- I THINK THAT I WILL MOVE TO ALASKA........AND GET BACK IN TOUCH WITH NATURE......
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- MoonBeam461,
If I was Canadian, I would be more concerned with extracting my fellow country men and women from the U.S./NAITO defeat in Afghanistan.
The Canadians should not be legitimizing that effort. - Reply to this comment
- AND WHY DO I CARE, I AM CANADIAN....ADMIT THAT THE WAR AND LOST LOVED ONES WERE IN VAIN......BRING BACK THOSE THAT YOU CAN
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- MoonBeam461,
You are welcome. - Reply to this comment
- WHAT IS KEEPING THE US SOLDIERS IN IRAQ.....THE PRESIDENT MAY AS WELL BE DEAD WITH THE DEMOCRATIC CHANGE..........DO YOU LOVED ONES HAVE ANY SAY?
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- THANK-YOU FEEL FREE
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- Re: "Can you believe we have been there longer than WWII lasted?"
Yes I can, and there is no indication that 'we' have any intention of ever leaving. U.S. "contrators" are building the largest embassy building ever constructed, and contunue to develop several PERMANENT U.S. military bases throughout Iraq.
The U.S. military will leave Iraq when they are finally thrown out, or when enough of our bravest soldiers refuse to participate in the horrific, disgraceful, and illegal war against Iraq; whichever comes first. - Reply to this comment
- I AM CANADIAN BORN............GRANDFATHER UKRAININ
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- Moonie, I thought you were going to the loo or something?
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- Should they surrender their "booty?" Good question. It seems to me that if they were making a fair market price for their work, going over there would not be nearly as enticing. For certain, the war would not be costing billions. Can you believe we have been there longer than WWII lasted?
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- I HAVE LOST AL-JAZERRA ...........THANKS TO CNN....
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- I'm Welsh Irish Texas but I'm willing to bet you aren't native-born French/English Canadian.
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- Returning to the discussion, should these "contractor" organizations be compelled to surrender their war booty?
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- THANK-YOU FOR LISTENING !
- Reply to this comment
- I AM SURE AS A CANADIAN.......THAT YOU, AMERICANS WILL FLUFF OFF MY WHOLE CONVERSATION.
GOOD-NIGHT.....AM GOING TO AL-JAZEERA, BROADCASTING...... - Reply to this comment
