THINGS ARE IMPROVING IN IRAQ, SAYS GWB--ONLY 40 HOSTAGES HELD.....!
Foreign workers told to quit Iraq
Foreign nationals are being urged to flee Iraq as governments and private companies react to growing insecurity and a wave of kidnappings.
Coalition civilian spokesman Dan Senor said 40 hostages from 12 countries were currently being held in Iraq.
France has issued a formal warning urging its citizens to leave, calling the kidnappings "unacceptable".
And Russia's biggest contractor in Iraq, Tekhpromexport, is pulling its 370 staff out of Iraq.
France's move follows a similar statement by the German foreign ministry on Monday.
The British Foreign Office said it continued to advise against all but the most essential travel to Iraq.
In the latest development in the hostage crisis, al-Jazeera satellite television has broadcast a videotape of four men, described as Italians, who it said had been abducted by Islamists in Iraq.
The four men were shown seated on the ground and holding their passports, surrounded by armed men who called for the withdrawal of Italian troops from Iraq.
Italy's Rai television reported that four Italian employees of a private US security agency, DTS Security, were missing.
Uncertainty
A number of other foreigners have been taken hostage or reported missing in Iraq, including three Japanese citizens abducted last Thursday whose fate remains unknown.
CONFIRMED FOREIGN HOSTAGES
4 Italians
3 Japanese
3 Czechs
1 American
1 Canadian
1 Israeli Arab
Their captors threatened to burn them alive unless Japan withdrew its 550 troops from Iraq - but the 11 April deadline passed without any news of their fate.
Japan's defence chief Shigeru Ishiba has given up a plan to visit the country's troops in southern Iraq, due to security concerns, reports quoting official sources said.
Three Czech television journalists were also taken hostage north of Baghdad on Monday morning.
Other hostages have been released. Three Russian and five Ukrainian engineers abducted by insurgents in Baghdad were freed unharmed on Tuesday, one day after they were kidnapped.
And seven Chinese men seized near the flashpoint town of Falluja on Sunday were also released after being held for a day.
Violence
Further clashes between US forces and Sunni insurgents have been reported near Falluja.
IRAQ FLASH POINTS
1. Falluja - More clashes in area between US forces and Sunni insurgents. US Apache helicopter crashes after being hit by a rocket
2. Baghdad - Eight Russian hostages released. US forces release senior aide of Moqtada Sadr
3. Najaf - Insurgents reportedly withdrawing from local government buildings
A US Apache helicopter crashed between Falluja and Abu Ghraib after being hit by a rocket. The US military said three people were wounded, and the helicopter was later destroyed.
The incident came after US helicopters reportedly fired missiles at targets in the nearby town of al-Karma.
Elsewhere, a bomb attack on a US convoy travelling from Baquba to Najaf killed one soldier and wounded another, as well as a civilian contractor, the US military said
Iraqi security forces have taken control of the southern city of Najaf, after armed militiamen loyal to Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr withdrew from police stations and government buildings in the city.
Mr Sadr said on Tuesday he was willing to die for his campaign to end the occupation of the US-led coalition.
"I am ready to sacrifice [myself] and I call on the [Iraqi] people not to allow my death to cause the collapse of the fight for freedom and an end to the occupation," he told Lebanon's al-Manar television.
Shia unrest
The senior US military commander in Iraq, Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez, has said it is an American objective to kill or capture Mr Sadr.
An aide to Mr Sadr, Hazem al-Araji, has been released from US custody after a brief detention in Baghdad. Witnesses said he was arrested after being interviewed by Italian journalists, and was driven away in a US armoured vehicle.
The earlier arrest of another aide to Mr Sadr sparked the current Shia unrest.
As the kidnap dramas continued to unfold, US military commanders in Iraq asked for two more brigades of mobile combat troops to deal with the volatile situation on the ground.
"In terms of capability, what I have asked for is essentially to have a strong mobile combat arms capability," the head of US Central Command, Gen John Abizaid, said.
"We're working [out] the details with the joint staff as far as the sourcing is concerned. I really don't have the precise answer as to who and how that'll be filled right now."
Gen Abizaid also told reporters that the return of some troops from Iraq to the US would almost certainly be delayed.
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