24 July 2004	Saturday	06 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

BAGHDAD: Dozens of foreign truck drivers entering Iraq after a treacherous journey from Kuwait or Jordan have been gripped by fear that they may be the next hostage to be taken by insurgents.

The latest kidnappings - this time involving seven drivers - have spread panic among these men who come from countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and neighbouring countries of Jordan and Syria.

"We came to know about the kidnappings of seven truck drivers last night when we arrived here from Kuwait and are really scared to enter Iraq now," said Raees Ahmed, a 40-year-old Indian driver from New Delhi.

The militant group, which calls itself Black Flags, is demanding that the trucking company, Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport, withdraw from Iraq and close its offices there. If it fails to do so, a hostage would be killed every 72 hours starting Saturday, the group warned.

Ahmed works for a Kuwaiti truck operator and has made four trips to Iraq in the past two months carrying goods for the coalition forces based in Baghdad. "I am more scared right now than the others as three of the seven hostages are Indians.

Earlier I was not scared of terrorists as we found ourselves safe being Indians, but now the situation has changed," Ahmed said after parking his Volvo truck near the key airport checkpoint in Baghdad, guarded by US marines.

The three Indian truck drivers, along with three Kenyans and an Egyptian, were abducted on Wednesday, just one day after an earlier Filipino hostage truck driver was released by his captors.

The latest hostage drama has gripped the drivers despite many of them being provided with armed escorts by Iraqi security agencies working for the coalition forces. "There are two Iraqi cars with each truck most of the times, but sometimes we are alone and that is the time when danger is maximum," said the short, slim Ahmed who has come to Kuwait on a six-months visa after paying nearly 2,600 dollars to an agent in New Delhi.

"Otherwise how do you explain the abductions of those seven drivers." The truckers, who often drive for nearly 10 to 12 hours at a stretch, said rising insecurity has forced them to travel only during the day despite the scorching heat.

"Driving at night is just out of question now. It is not safe any more whether you are entering Iraq from Kuwait, Jordan or Syria," said Syed Abbas Hussein, a 36-year-old Pakistani national working for another Kuwaiti truck operator.

He said most of the drivers were forced by their operators to come to Iraq and were often unaware of the goods they were carrying until the trucks were actually loaded.

"If we refuse to travel to Iraq we are told to quit and go back to our country," said Hussein, who has a two-year Kuwaiti visa. "But we can't go back as we have paid hefty amounts to get these visas and have no lucrative jobs back home."

Hussein, who has two children and a wife in Lahore, said he paid his agent around 4,000 dollars for the visa and has more than one year to go before he leaves Kuwait. Drivers say that despite taking the risks the monetary gains are not lucrative considering the money that has to be paid for visas.

After the latest kidnappings, the drivers now also feel they need to keep in closer contact with their families back home. A Jordanian truck driver standing next to Hussein said the danger appeared now to hang over every foreign driver. -AFP