IRAQ: Militants have seized an Egyptian diplomat in Baghdad and demanded that Egypt should not cooperate with US-led forces, Al Jazeera reported yesterday.
A video tape showed Mr Mohamed Mamdouh Qutb - the first diplomat known to have been abducted in Iraq - sitting in front of six masked men. Meanwhile, a group which threatened to behead seven foreign captives issued a new 48-hour deadline to the Kuwaiti company that employs them and demanded Iraqi prisoners be freed from Kuwaiti and US jails.