Polish workers abducted in Iraq
Two Polish contractors and five aides were abducted near Baghdad, before one of them escaped, a spokesman for their company said.
They were abducted from their office north west of the city at about noon yesterday by people who drove up in two Jeeps, Andrzej Polaczkiewicz, a spokesman for the Jedynka construction company told Polish television.
He said the other abductees were three Kurdish security guards and two locally-hired female technical employees.
One of the Polish men got away and reached coalition forces, said Lt Col Robert Strzelecki, the spokesman for the Polish-led multinational division in Iraq in an interview from Camp Babylon in Iraq.
“The man is in good condition. He suffered no injuries and he has got in touch with his family,” he said.
A search was now under way for the other hostages, Strzelecki said.
Polaczkiewicz identified the man who escaped as Radoslaw Kadri. The office director, Jerzy Kos, is among the missing, he said. He did not identify the other workers.
Polaczkewicz said the kidnappers burst into the office and rifled through it. "It looked like it was well-prepared,” he said.
Poland commands some 6,200 troops from 17 nations in south-central Iraq and contributes some 2,400 troops of its own.
The workers were abducted in an area under American command.
