Today, the Qatari satellite TV channel Al-Jazeera showed a video in which a representative of the Iraqi terrorist group “Monotheism and Jihad,” associated with Al-Qaeda (an organization banned in Russia) (the group is led by a terrorist of Jordanian origin, Abu Musab Zarqawi), announces the release of two Turkish citizens taken hostage on July 31. Then the extremists promised to kill the Turkish drivers within 48 hours and even published a videotape of the execution of one of them on the Internet site. However, as it turned out, someone else was executed, and the Turkish companies Karamanli and Oztur, agreeing to the terrorists’ conditions, achieved the return home of their employees Abdulrahman Demir and Said Unurlu. It is not yet known where exactly and when the hostages will be released.

It is obvious that the scenario of releasing hostages in exchange for fulfilling the terrorists’ conditions is becoming a common practice in Iraq. The number of foreign companies willing to risk the lives of their employees in the name of American interests is declining.

Previously, fearing the execution of hostages, Jordanians and Filipinos refused to work with the Americans. Russian specialists also left Iraq, fearing for their personnel.

Today it became known about the semi-mystical release from Iraqi captivity of four Jordanian hostages kidnapped at the end of July by a group calling itself the “Deadly Squad of the Iraqi Resistance.” The terrorists, as per tradition, demanded that the company for which the Jordanians worked cease cooperation with US troops, and also called on the Arabs to put pressure on their governments to stop supporting coalition forces in Iraq. Families of those captured also reported that the kidnappers promised to release the hostages only if relatives organized an anti-American demonstration in Jordan. However, it seems that such steps were not necessary.

As RIA Novosti reports with reference to the Associated Press, one of the leaders of local tribes in Fallujah, Sheikh Ibrahim Jassam, carried out a counter-terrorism operation with his “brothers and fellow tribesmen” to free the hostages.

After learning on Tuesday evening that four hostages were being held in a house on the outskirts of Fallujah, he called on local residents to release them. As a result of the operation, the kidnappers, according to Jassam, fled and all the hostages were taken to his home.

“I am pleased that these innocent Muslims have been released,” Jassam said. He plans to personally hand over the hostages to Jordanian authorities. “So far, no one from the Jordanian embassy has contacted me, but I will deliver them to the families,” the sheikh added.

How exactly the “brothers” managed to find out the whereabouts of the prisoners and free them on their own is not reported. However, it is unlikely that the families of military personnel and employees of various companies still in Iraq will begin to believe in miracles and worry less about their loved ones after this incident.

The Turks left with the hostages