A convoy of civilians traveling near Nasiriyah, in southern Iraq, was hijacked Thursday, according to the Pentagon.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said that preliminary reports suggested there could be as many as 14 people captured and that the convoy included about 19 vehicles.
He said he had no new details on the attack, adding that British forces were working with Iraqis to determine what happened. He would not say whether U.S. forces were involved.
Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, confirmed that a convoy was attacked in the southern region of Iraq, but he also provided no other details. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reported that four of the civilians captured were American contractors and that the convoy was being operated by the Crescent Security Group.
A spokesman for the company contacted by The Associated Press said he could not provide any information until he was able to determine what happened.
Italy formally handed over security responsibility of the southern Dhi Qar Province to Iraqi forces in late September, and British troops handed over control of the adjacent southern Muthana province in July.
Nasiriyah is the provincial capital of Dhi Qar.
In other developments:
The Shiite-led Interior Ministry issued an arrest warrant Thursday for Harith al-Dhari, the top leader of the country's Sunni minority, a move certain to inflame already raging sectarian violence in Iraq. Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said al-Dhari was wanted for inciting terrorism and violence among the Iraqi people. His message was carried on Al-Iraqiyah state television.A soldier was sentenced Thursday to life in prison for conspiring to rape a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and kill her and her family. Spc. James P. Barker, one of four Fort Campbell soldiers accused in the March 12 rape of Abeer Qassim al-Janabi and the killings, pleaded guilty Wednesday and agreed to testify against the others to avoid the death penalty. A Marine lance corporal was sentenced to 21 months in prison for his role in the abduction and slaying of an Iraqi civilian last spring. Lance Cpl. Tyler A. Jackson, the second member of his squad to be sentenced to prison this week, had pleaded guilty to reduced charges in a pretrial agreement with prosecutors. Military judge Lt. Col. Joseph Lisiecki on Thursday issued a sentence of nine years of confinement, but under rules of the proceeding the actual sentence was determined by the pretrial agreement. The 21 months includes six months already served. On Wednesday, a Marine private sentenced to 18 months in custody apologized for his role in the killing. Iraq's higher education minister said Thursday that as many as 80 people kidnapped from his ministry's office remain captive, disputing government claims that most have been released. Higher Education Minister Abed Theyab said that 70 of 150 hostages had been released and those freed "were tortured and suffered a lot." Dozens of people were taken Tuesday in a brazen raid on the central Baghdad office that handles academic grants and exchanges, with the men handcuffed and loaded aboard about 20 pickup trucks by gunmen dressed in the uniforms of Interior Ministry commandos.Deadly attacks continued in the capital, with suspected insurgents and militias using guns, bombs and mortar shells to kill 15 Iraqis. In the deadliest attack, gunmen opened fire on a bakery, killing nine people, police said. Those killed in the included employees of the bakery and its customers, said a police Captain. "The gunmen stormed into the bakery and killed workers while they were baking. They had done nothing bad," said one man who joined other local residents outside the small store after the attack. Four civilians and two Iraqi policeman also died in six other attacks in Baghdad on Thursday morning. U.S. commanders reported Thursday the deaths of four more American soldiers, pushing the number killed so far this month to 44. Three of the latest deaths happened Wednesday. The other was Tuesday. All were in the Army. Two of the soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb yesterday during combat in northeastern Iraq's Diyala province. Two others riding with them were wounded. The other soldier killed yesterday was hit by small arms fire, also in Diyala.In Youssifiyah, a rural area 12 miles south of Baghdad, U.S. soldiers were conducting a raid and demanding that Iraqi civilians exit buildings when they saw several armed men in a nearby wooded area, the military said. The soldiers called in air support, which opened fire, killing nine suspected al Qaeda in Iraq insurgents, several of whom were later found to be wearing suicide bomb vests, the military said. The soldiers also detained nine other suspected insurgents during the raid, the military said.On Wednesday, more than 1,000 Iraqi soldiers began conducting a military operation aimed at clearing several villages of suspected insurgents and their weapons caches near Iraq's northern city of Kirkuk. The cordon and search operation, relying on the support of U.S. air and artillery from a nearby military base, was taking place in the Zytoon and Rashad valleys, about 25 miles south of Kirkuk. Iraqi soldiers planned to remain in the area after the operation to protect Iraqi civilians and to deny insurgents sanctuary in the area, the military said.CBS' Martin reports that after arguing against either a substantial buildup or cutback in U.S. troops, Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, made a stunning admission Wednesday: The U.S. military does not have enough troops for a big buildup in Iraq even if he wanted one. The admission came as members of — Congress grilled Abizaid over the U.S. mission in Iraq.Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday that his nation was ready to offer training for Iraqi security forces to help achieve stability. "We are ready to give every kind of support," he said. "We are ready to train them, in the military field, and in the police field."