Basra dead may be linked to missing "American"

BASRA, Iraq, Jan 6 (Reuters) Two men found shot dead in Basra today may be 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 Charlie Burbridge, said police reports indicated the dead men may have been Iraqis kidnapped along with a foreigner near Basra but this had not been confirmed.

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

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

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

REUTERS AB KN1541