IRAQ: The body of a man believed to be a Westerner was found yesterday near the restive town of Samarra north of Baghdad, Iraqi police said.
Police said the corpse was bloated, suggesting the person had been dead for some time.
Earlier yesterday gunmen kidnapped two Americans and a Briton from a house in an affluent central Baghdad neighbourhood, the latest in a nearly six-month campaign of abductions of foreigners in Iraq.
Two French journalists were seized last month south of Baghdad and there has been no word on their fate for a week.
Two Italian women aid workers were also kidnapped in Baghdad earlier this month.
Militants posted video footage yesterday on the Internet purportedly showing the killing of three Arabic-speaking truckers, who were also shown warning others against working with US forces in Iraq. In northern Iraq, gunmen kidnapped a Syrian truck driver.
The US embassy named the two Americans kidnapped yesterday as Mr Jack Hensley and Mr Eugene Armstrong but did not give their home towns.
The British embassy said no details on the kidnapped Briton would be released until his family had been informed. The trio worked for GSCS, a United Arab Emirates-based firm that has won building contracts in Iraq, the company said.
Neighbours described the men as young and said their house was poorly secured, with only one unarmed guard at the gate. One neighbour said the contractors had received threats before.
Meanwhile, a roadside bomb in Baghdad yesterday killed a passer-by and wounded 16. A bomb south of Baghdad killed one person, and an oil pipeline was set ablaze in Baqouba, 40 miles north of Baghdad.