- Title: IRAQ: TWO LEBANESE MEN KIDNAPPED BY INSURGENTS IN YUSFIYA AND BAGHDAD
- Date: 31st July 2004
- Summary: (W5) YUSFIYA, 25 KM SOUTH OF BAGHDAD, IRAQ (JULY 31, 2004)(REUTERS) 1. VIEWS OF CAR OF KIDNAPPED LEBANESE BUSINESSMAN VLADIMIR DAMAA SITTING ABANDONED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD (2 SHOTS) 0.11 2. IRAQI POLICEMAN DIRECTING TRAFFIC AROUND THE CAR 0.15 3. SCU: INTERIOR OF CAR OF KIDNAPPED LEBANESE MAN, BLOOD ON GEAR BOX 0.23 4. CLOSEUP BLOODSTAINED GEAR BOX 0.33 5. CAR OF KIDNAPPENED LEBANESE WITH OPENED DOORS 0.39 6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) RESIDENT OF AREA, SAYING: "As far as I know, I heard that the head of a company in the area was kidnapped and I heard he is a Lebanese." 1.01 7. WIDE OF AREA WITH CAR OF KIDNAPPENED LEBANESE BUSINESSMAN DESERTED ON SIDE OF ROAD 1.08 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 15th August 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Iraq
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVA88Z0DFMGMLZK5N3YKI1XM6H1Z
- Story Text: Two Lebanese men have been kidnapped in Iraq, the
latest foreigners to be seized by insurgents.
Two Lebanese men have been kidnapped in Iraq, a
Lebanese foreign ministry source and their families said on
Sunday (August 1), amid a wave of kidnappings of foreigners.
The source said the ministry was still trying to
confirm the men's names and the circumstances of their
abduction.
But relatives said Vladimir Damaa, who ran a
construction firm in Iraq with his brother Marwan, was
kidnapped at gunpoint outside their workplace.
Marwan was negotiating with the kidnappers who have
demanded a 700,000 U.S. dollar ransom for his brother's
release, other relatives said. The brothers sold
prefabricated houses to U.S. forces but it appeared the
motive for the abduction was financial rather than
political, relatives said.
It was not immediately clear which part of Iraq Damaa,
who comes from northern Lebanon, was abducted.
However, video shot on Saturday (July 31) near the town
of Yusfiya, 25 kilometres south of Baghdad, showed a car
believed to have been driven by Vladimir Damaa standing
abandoned in the middle of a road. The car had bloodstains
in the interior.
A resident of the area said he had heard that the car
belonged to a Lebanese man who was the head of a company
who had been kidnapped.
The other Lebanese man, 29-year-old Antoine Antoun was
kidnapped by gunmen from a dairy he ran in a district of
Baghdad, a member of his family told Reuters.
Workers from his factory said gunmen came and took away
Antoine.
A Lebanese-born U.S. marine, Corporal Wassef Ali
Hassoun, went missing from his unit in Iraq in June and
appeared on a videotape, apparently held by militants.
He resurfaced unharmed at the U.S. embassy in Beirut
on July 8.
At least three other Lebanese have been kidnapped in
Iraq in recent months. A fourth was snatched in June and
later killed.
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