... this craziness HAS to end
By RAVI NESSMAN Associated Press Writer 08/31/2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A gruesome video posted on a Web site purported to show militants beheading a Nepalese worker and shooting 11 others in the first mass slaying of foreign hostages during the Iraqi insurgency.
If confirmed, it would raise the number of foreign workers known to have been slain by extremists to at least 22 in a terror campaign aimed at forcing foreign troops and contract workers out of the country.
Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi promised retribution. "The only solution with this unjust group is to make them face justice," he angrily told the Arab-language Al-Arabiya television station.
In Nepal, relatives grieved after hearing the news. "What sins have I committed to deserve this?" said Jit Bahadur Khadka, the father of one of those reportedly killed, 19-year-old Ramesh Khadka.
Nepal, which has no troops in Iraq, has long banned its citizens from working in Iraq because of security concerns. However, many people from the poor Asian nation take jobs abroad, and 17,000 Nepalese are believed to have slipped into Iraq, with many working as armed security guards for foreign contractors.
"We strongly condemn the terrorist act and urge the international community to speak against this terrorist act," Nepalese Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat said after an emergency Cabinet meeting held in Katmandu amid criticism the government did not do enough to save the men.
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*Note: I am merely reproducing this text in full, as stated in fact in the linked article above. I have nothing to add except that this craziness just MUST end.