Roundup: efforts continue for Chinese hostages release

The Chinese government on Thursday continued its efforts for the release of the eight Chinese citizens kidnapped in Iraq while US troops launched fresh raids on militants around Mosul.

The Chinese government is making every effort it can to secure the release of the eight Chinese workers abducted in Iraq, the Chinese Embassy in Iraq said Thursday.

The embassy is maintaining contacts with the Iraqi government and non-governmental parties for the release, the embassy said.

At a press conference in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said the Chinese government has always had the fundamental interests of the Iraqi people in mind while dealing with the Iraq issue.

"The Chinese people have always cherished friendly feelings towards the Iraqi people and sympathized with and supported them,"Kong said, noting the eight kidnapped people are ordinary Chinese citizens who traveled to Iraq for job opportunities.

After failing to find jobs, they rented a car to leave Iraq but were kidnapped en route, Kong said.

Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing telephoned Chinese Ambassador to Iraq Yang Honglin on Thursday, asking Yang and all embassy staff to make all-out efforts for the release of the hostages as soon as possible.

Li also conveyed again the Chinese leaders' deep concerns over the eight Chinese citizens.

The pan-Arab al-Jazeera TV channel showed a videotape on Tuesday that the eight hostages holding Chinese passports being guarded by masked gunmen. The kidnappers asked the Chinese government to make clear its position on Iraq as a condition for the hostages' release.

IRAQ MILITANTS VOW LONG-TERM ANTI-US FIGHT

An 90-minute audio tape, posted on the Internet Thursday and purportedly from Musab al-Zarqawi, called on his followers to prepare a long struggle to free Iraq from US occupation.

"Fighters who have taken the path of Jihad have to realize the nature and the demand of the battle toward the required goal," said a man appearing on the tape, noting "ferocious wars are not determined by the outcome of days or weeks" but by "their time until it is time to announce the victory."

He also acknowledged Omar Hadid, leader of al-Qaida in Fallujah, was killed in US assault.

Al-Zarqawi is the Jordanian terrorist mastermind whose group is believed to be responsible for kidnapping dozens of people and beheading some of them. He is one of the most wanted by the US-led coalition forces and the Iraqi government.

The group in a separate web statement claimed responsibility for an explosion Thursday. The blast at the entrance to a logistics base injured five British soldiers and several Iraqi civilians.

The attack was in retaliation for British solders' abusing of Iraqi prisoners, said the statement, whose authenticity is not clear so far.

In another development, the al-Qaida linked Army of Ansar al-Sunna said in a statement posted on an Islamic website Thursday that it had killed a Briton and a Swede.

The group "kidnapped two agents ... working for an intelligence service of the infidel forces in the region of Beiji" and executed them, said the statement, whose authenticity needs to be verified.

US LAUNCHES NEW ATTACK AROUND MOSUL

US troops launched new attacks around Iraqi northern city of Mosul on Thursday, killing five suspected insurgents, said the military.

The military also detained nine others and discovered several weapons in the operation.

Meanwhile in Samarra, 95 km north of Baghdad, three Iraqi army soldiers were killed in an explosion, said the US military.

In Ramadi, 110 km west of Baghdad, Iraqi insurgents exchanged fires with US Marines, said the US military.

Two Iraqis were killed and two others injured, said local hospital staff.