"12 Nepalese Reportedly Executed in Iraq"

[GreenPartyVoter]

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A video purporting to show the methodical, grisly killings of 12 Nepalese construction workers kidnapped in Iraq was posted Tuesday on a Web site linked to a militant group operating in Iraq.

The slayings would mark the largest number of foreign hostages killed at one time by insurgents in Iraq who have seized more than 100 hostages in recent months in their drive to destabilize the country and force coalition troops and foreign workers to withdraw.

In Katmandu, Nepal's Foreign Minister Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat said officials were still checking the reports and the government had called an emergency Cabinet meeting.

"If it is true it is shocking because there were no demand or deadlines ... that makes it even more shocking," Mahat said before the meeting.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20040831/D84QB3GG0.html

[MrBenchley]

1. Nepal is one of our coalition partners, but not Germany or France?

Ho-kay.

I mean, I feel badly that these poor mokes have got caught in the meat grinder, and I'm glad to see Nepal interacting with the wider world but...

Quick, who thought Nepal was going to be a source of military help in a shooting war? Especially a war in a desert at sea level?

How threatened did folks in Nepal feel by Saddam, anyway? How far down the phone list of possible military allies was Nepal?