Twelve Working Men

On August 28, 2004 Xinhua carried the story of a dozen Nepalese workers who had been taken hostage in Iraq by a group called the Heroic Mujahedeen. The pattern was familiar: the abduction, the pleading video.

According to a Xinhua report from Baghdad last Friday, about a dozen Nepalese workers were taken hostage in Iraq by a group of Heroic Mujahedeen (Islamic Fighters) on the night of Aug. 19-20, accusing them of assisting the US troops in Iraq. ... The 12 Nepalese kept hostages by the Iraqi insurgents in a video tape telecast by the well-known Arabian Al Jazeera Television appealed to the Nepali government to initiate all possible steps to rescue them. They also appealed to the government to take stern action against the Moonlight Manpower Company, a foreign employment agent who forced them to go to Iraq despite their unwillingness to go there.

Some of the Nepalis were grey-haired laborers upon whom the sustenance of their families in the hills depended. ABC News reports:

A militant Iraqi group said it had killed 12 Nepali hostages and showed pictures of one being beheaded and others being shot dead, the worst mass killing of captives since a wave of kidnappings erupted in April. The Nepalis were kidnapped earlier this month when they entered Iraq to work as cooks and cleaners for a Jordanian firm. ...

"We have carried out the sentence of God against 12 Nepalis who came from their country to fight the Muslims and to serve the Jews and the Christians...believing in Buddha as their God," said the statement by the military committee of the Army of Ansar al-Sunna. ... The recording showed two masked men, one in camouflage, holding down a hostage. One of the men then used a knife to behead the hostage and then hold his head aloft. The video then showed a group of hostages lying face down and being shot by a man using an automatic rifle. It then showed bodies splattered with blood and bullet wounds.

This may be good news for the two French hostages. It has always been part of the terrorist modus operandi to increase the contrast between the treatment of their enemies and their friends. We have seen their wrath and soon we may see their smile.

Addendum

Personally, I think the bombings in Russia and Israel, plus the kidnappings of aid workers in Darfur are timed to coincide with the RNC convention. It could be coincidental, but that that is less likely than to assume the enemy, who is commanded, is working to a plan. That means the enemy will attempt an attack in the USA. We already know that, but it bears remembering that if they can kill 12 in two Israeli buses, they can do it in America.