Black Watch rescues abducted drivers from 10-day ordeal

Two Kenyan truck drivers taken captive in Iraq 10 days ago and feared dead were dramatically rescued yesterday by British troops.

David Mukaria and Jakubu Kamau were found when troops from the Black Watch regiment, acting on a tip-off from local people, burst into a school in Zubayr, 12 miles south of Basra. The pair had been blindfolded and their hands and feet bound together throughout their ordeal. They had no access to food and water.

Al-Jazeera television broadcast Iraqi footage of the two men in captivity last week, which described them as British troops taken prisoner.

Yesterday after their release they said they spent their time praying for rescue or death, listening to their captors deciding whether or not to kill them.

"They beat us, tied us up, tied our hands and feet and covered our eyes and they took everything we had," Mr Mukaria said.

"We decided because we are Christians we would ask God to save us or take our souls to heaven. We just prayed and prayed."

The men are employees of a company based in Saudi Arabia delivering food supplies to the US military. They became separated from a convoy heading for the captured southern seaport of Umm Qasr and got lost near Zubayr.

"The other trucks finished unloading before us," said Mr Mukaria. "On the way back we lost the way. The convoy switched off the lights and they were driving too fast."

They were outside Basra late at night, he said, when a man appeared in the road with a torch.

"He shone a torch at us and asked us where we were going.

"We said 'Kuwait' and after that 20 people came to us with their guns. They beat us, tied us up, tied our hands and feet and covered our eyes and they took everything we had," he said. The armed men were members of an Iraqi militia. British troops, who are now in control of Zubayr, pulled up outside the one-storey school building yesterday morning in two Warrior armoured vehicles. After covering the front and rear, soldiers ran in, kicking down doors. They found the building empty but for a stockpile of weapons, and the two hostages cowering in a classroom.

Cpl Stewart Robson said: "We had no idea what we might come up against or whether there were Iraqis still there.

"When we found them they were in darkness in a room which had all its windows blacked out and they had trouble adjusting to the light as we led them out. They said they'd been beaten and showed us the marks on their wrists where their hands had been tied."

Mr Kamau, who had rope burns on his wrists, said that yesterday morning he believed his prayers had been answered.

"I told them God will open this door and let us out," he said.

"Half an hour later someone opened the door and ran away. When they opened the door we did not go out because we did not know if they were still there. But two hours later the army came. They came in and found us in the room."

Last night the men said they were prepared to return to Iraq if they could be guaranteed a better escort next time.

"We are not afraid. We ask God to bless the people who took us," Mr Mukaria said.

Kenyan newspapers have carried extensive reports about the truck drivers with appeals from their families for their release. Thousands of Kenyan immigrants, mostly manual workers, live in Saudi Arabia.

Compiled from pooled dispatches.