Iraq, three hostages were slaughtered, a Lebanese and two Iraqis

BAGDAD – A Lebanese hostage and two Iraqis have been slaughtered and their bodies abandoned along the road that connects Falluja to Ramadi. The three had been kidnapped last Thursday along with five other employees of a telecommunications company. One had been released and had been able to tell that the comrades were being held captive by Iraqi militants.

“Hussein Olayyan, a native of southern Lebanon, and two Iraqis, who worked for a telecommunications company, disappeared Thursday in the Falluja region,” sources in the Lebanese embassy said. Olayyan was a Shiite Muslim. According to sources from the Foreign Ministry in Beirut, he may have been killed “for financial reasons”.

The atrociously mutilated corpses were discovered yesterday by some truck drivers, who looked at the documents and called the embassy. The company for which the three victims worked asked the authorities to investigate. The Lebanese body should be repatriated tomorrow.

12 June 2004