Filipino, Bulgarians face death threat in Iraq

Militants in Iraq held a Filipino and two Bulgarians under death threat yesterday to press demands for Manila's troops to go home and for US-led forces to release prisoners.

A US marine who turned up in his native Lebanon after going missing in Iraq in June left Beirut on a US military plane for a base in Germany, but there was still no word on whether he had been abducted or how he had reached Lebanon.

A Marine Corps spokesman in Washington said a preliminary inquiry suggested Wassef Ali Hassoun had deserted his unit in Iraq on June 21. His status was changed to "captured" a week later, after video footage showed him being held hostage. The Naval Criminal Investigative service is still investigating.

Kidnappings have increased pressure on Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's government, trying to assert its authority after taking over from US-led occupiers on June 28, but still dependent for security on 160,000 mainly American troops.

Underlining the gravity of the crisis, Mr Allawi has dropped plans to visit European Union headquarters in Brussels next week due to security problems in Iraq, an EU diplomat said.

Mr Allawi had planned to meet the EU's 25 foreign ministers on Monday to discuss the bloc's contribution to rebuilding Iraq after the US-led occupation formally ended on June 28.

US officials have acknowledged they did not expect American forces to be fighting insurgents in Iraq more than a year after last year's invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

The US military said rebels killed five soldiers in Samarra, north of Baghdad, on Thursday and one died after an ambush in the Iraqi capital, bringing the US combat toll in Iraq to at least 652 since the start of the war.