Germans seized days after arrival in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Kidnappers of two German engineers seized their captives only two days after they arrived in Iraq, gaining access to their compound by pretending to be soldiers, police said Wednesday.

The two men arrived Sunday for a brief assignment at a government-owned detergent plant in Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, German and Iraqi officials said.

Iraqi police initially reported the two were grabbed as they were driving to work Tuesday. But on Wednesday, two policemen – Lt. Arkan Ali and officer Salih al-Janabi – said the Germans were taken from their compound by armed men who gained access by pretending to be soldiers.

In Berlin, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said there had been no contact with the kidnappers, and government spokesman Thomas Steg said the reason for the abduction was not known.

More than 240 foreigners have been abducted in Iraq since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein – either by insurgents or criminal gangs. At least 39 captives have been killed. Thousands of Iraqis are believed to have fallen victim to kidnappers, many of them for ransom.

The German government has refused to identify the two hostages. But the Leipziger Volkszeitung newspaper identified them as Thomas Nitzschke and Rene Braeunlich. The men work for an engineering firm based in Leipzig.

At least five foreigners have been abducted this month – including two Kenyan communications engineers missing after an ambush in Baghdad on Jan. 18 and American journalist Jill Carroll, who was seized Jan. 7 in the capital. Her translator was killed.

Explosion kills U.S. soldier

Meanwhile, the military said today that a U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded by a roadside bomb blast south of Baghdad the day before. The military also said that a U.S. Marine was killed by small-arms fire Tuesday in Karmah, 50 miles west of Baghdad.