IRAQ: An Iranian diplomat taken hostage in Iraq last month was released by his captors yesterday but the fate of at least 11 other foreigners.
The release of the diplomat, Mr Fereidoun Jahani, comes as Jordan's King Abdullah warned in an interview to be published today that Iraq was far too unsafe to hold elections as scheduled in January and extremists would do well in the poll if Baghdad tried to hold it.
The comments go further than ones by US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who said Iraq's insurgency was worsening.
Excluding troubled areas from the nationwide poll would only isolate Iraq's Sunnis and create deeper divisions in the country, King Abdullah told the Paris daily Le Figaro, according to a text distributed in advance.
"It seems impossible to me to organise indisputable elections in the chaos we see today," said the king, who was due to meet French President Jacques Chirac in Paris today.
"Only if the situation improved could an election be organised on schedule," he said.
"If the elections take place in the current disorder, the best-organised faction will be that of the extremists and the result will reflect that advantage."
Asked if partial elections would isolate the Sunnis, he said: "That's exactly our worry."
Mr Jahani was seized as he travelled by car south of Baghdad by a group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq.
It was not clear if he was being held by the same group when he was freed. The Iranian embassy in Baghdad said he was in good health.
The Islamic Army in Iraq is believed to be holding two French journalists, kidnapped on August 20th, and has claimed the killing of Italian hostage Enzo Baldoni on August 26th.
If it was the Islamic Army who freed Mr Jahani, it will raise hopes for French journalists Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot, who looked set to be released earlier this month, although there has since been no communication.
As well as the two Frenchmen, at least nine other foreigners remain hostage in Iraq - two Italian women aid workers seized on September 7th, British engineer Kenneth Bigley, taken from his home in Baghdad 11 days ago, and six Egyptian telecoms workers. There has been no word on the Italians, Ms Simona Pari and Ms Simona Torretta, for several days.
A group of Italian Muslims arrived in Iraq at the weekend to push for their release.
Insurgents yesterday detonated a car bomb near a National Guard patrol in the northern city of Mosul, killing three Guardsmen and wounding eight people, including three civilians.
Also yesterday, US planes fired at rebel positions in the eastern Baghdad Shia slum of Sadr City, residents and doctors said.
Six people died and 46 were wounded, according to Dr Qassem Saddam at Imam Ali hospital in Sadr City.
Centcom reported yesterday that two 1st Infantry Division soldiers were killed in separate incidents near Balad.
The military also announced that two US soldiers based in Baghdad had been charged with murder in the death of an Iraqi civilian, raising to four the number of US soldiers from the same unit charged with the murder of Iraqis in the past week.