The continuing violence in Iraq brought a new twist yesterday, with the news that 14 foreigners had been taken hostage. Eight Korean missionaries were quickly freed but three Japanese hostages - an aid worker and two journalists - were still being held last night by an Iraqi group which threatened to burn them alive if Japan's troops did not pull out of the country in three days, writes Lara Marlowe in Baghdad.
Two Arabs with Israeli identity papers from East Jerusalem - one an employee of USAID - were also kidnapped by a group which accused them of being spies for Israel.
Violence continued around the country during an unprecedented week in Iraq for coalition forces which saw the deaths of several hundred Iraqis and three dozen US servicemen.
Fighting intensified in the Sunni town of Falluja where four US civilian contractors were killed and mutilated last week, with reports that up to 300 Iraqis have been killed since US forces laid siege to the town on Monday.
US forces admitted they no longer had control of two southern towns, Najaf and Kut.
Meanwhile, the US National Security Adviser, Dr Condoleezza Rice, in her long-awaited testimony before a commission looking into events leading up to the September 11th attacks, denied that the Bush administration had placed a priority on Iraq after the attacks.
"Given our exceeding hostile relationship with Iraq at the time . . . it was a reasonable question to ask whether indeed Iraq might have been behind this," she said. But she insisted the focus was on Afghanistan. There was no "silver bullet" that could have averted the deadly attacks on the US.