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KGL to send negotiator to save Indian hostages
The Kuwaiti employer of an Indian hostage in Iraq said on Friday it would send an official to negotiate with the kidnappers in an attempt to stave off an execution threat.
The Kuwaiti employer of an Indian hostage in Iraq said on Friday it would send an official to negotiate with the kidnappers in an attempt to stave off an execution threat.
"A representative of the company is going tomorrow. We have no specific time, it depends on formalities here. It takes some time to get the okay to go to Iraq," said spokesperson Rana Abu Zaineh of the Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company.
She said the company would meet Sheikh Hisham al-Dulaymi, head of the National Group of Iraqi Tribal Leaders, who is acting as an intermediary with the Iraqi kidnappers. She said the firm hopes the official can meet the kidnappers directly.
Kidnappers holding three Indians, three Kenyans and an Egyptian said in a videotape they would kill one of the hostages by 1500 GMT on Friday if their demands were not met, and showed a gunmen aiming a rifle at an Indian to make their point.
But Abu Zaineh said the Kuwaiti firm understood that the kidnappers had effectively extended the deadline.
"It's an open deadline. It's been delayed. They (kidnappers) are not going to kill one of the hostages today. We have presence there, and some others are going tomorrow also," she said.
Indian hostage Antaryami appeared in Thursday's video with an M-16 assault rifle pointed at his head. The group wants the firm to stop doing business in Iraq. The firm appealed for more time for talks.
"The first thing is to touch base with Hisham (Dulaymi) and show our good intentions to wrap this up with minimum losses for both sides, and to make sure that our drivers are in good health."
Iraq's government has been challenged by a spate of kidnappings targeting scores of foreigners from about two dozen countries.
Most of those seized are truck drivers working for foreign firms delivering supplies to US forces or Iraqi companies. At least eight hostages have been killed -- four by beheading.
