The families of eight Chinese hostages held in Iraq have pleaded for their release as a deadline set by their captors nears.
Guerrillas released a video on Tuesday showing the Chinese workers being guarded by gunmen, and said they would be killed unless China - which opposed the US-led war in Iraq - clarified within 48 hours why its citizens were in the country.
Chinese President Hu Jintao has urged officials in Iraq to spare no effort to free the eight Chinese hostages and expressed deep concern over their fate.
Yesterday, at least five suicide bombers struck targets in Baghdad, and the US military said 26 people were killed. One of the blasts was a suicide truck bomb attack on the Australian embassy compound in the capital.
A British man working for a London-based security company was killed in an ambush near the northern town of Beiji on Wednesday. The Risk Advisory Group said an Iraqi employee was also killed in the attack and that another man, who it identified only as a foreign national, was missing.
Japan said it was checking reports that a Japanese man had been seized in the area, but had no information yet.