Kidnap 8 in air at last
26/1/2005 8:55
Eight Chinese men kidnapped and then released by Iraqi militants were
finally on their way home last night after fighting near Baghdad airport delayed
their planned departure on Monday.
They had been scheduled to fly to Amman,
Jordan, on Monday but the airliner arriving to pick them up turned back because
of the fighting.
Flights resumed yesterday.
Chinese Foreign Ministry
officials accompanied the eight to the airport where China's ambassador to Iraq,
Yang Honglin, farewelled them.
They passed through Amman late last
night.
Zhai Jun, head of a Chinese working group set up to coordinate their
rescue, said his group will escort the men all the way back to their hometown in
Fujian Province in southeast China.
Gunmen identifying themselves as the
Islamic Resistance Movement kidnapped the eight Chinese last week and released
them at the weekend.
In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said
the workers, aged 18 to 40, went to Iraq on their own and were seized on their
way back to China.
Kong refused to say whether they faced penalties for
ignoring government warnings to avoid Iraq because of its unstable
situation.
"We have warned Chinese citizens on many occasions not to go to
Iraq," Kong said.
Last year, seven other workers from Fujian were briefly
abducted by gunmen in the central Iraqi city of
Fallujah.
Xinhua/AP
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