Basra dead may be linked to missing 'American'

Basra (Iraq), Jan 6: Two men found shot dead in Basra today maybe Iraqis who went missing yesterday along with an American contractor,police in the southern oil city said.

A spokesman for British forces in the city, Major CharlieBurbridge, said police reports indicated the dead men may have beenIraqis kidnapped along with a foreigner near Basra but this had notbeen confirmed.

He said details of yesterday's incident were confused as therewere conflicting reports. He also declined to give the nationality ofthe missing foreigner, although the governor of Basra province saidyesterday he was an Iraqi-born American.

A US embassy spokesman in Baghdad said today: ''Embassy officialsare investigating reports that an American citizen was kidnapped nearBasra on January 5.'' Four Americans and an Austrian kidnapped near thecity in November are still missing. Burbridge said troops werecontinuing to follow up leads in the hunt for the five, who had beenguarding a supply convoy near the Kuwaiti border.

The area, which contains one of the world's biggest oilfields, issubject to factional conflict among Iraq's dominant Shi'ite politicalgroups, as well as criminal gangs. British troops accuse some Basrapolice of being in league with factional militias and gangsters.

Reuters>