The six-lane highway linking Baghdad to Jordan is a main route for imports and supplies into Iraq. Al Arabiya broadcasted a videotape from a previously unknown group calling itself the “Group of Death” vowing to cut off the highway in three days to Jordanian trucks. Jordanian interests, companies, businessmen and individuals are considered as targets and will be treated the same way as American targets,” said one of the four masked men on the video. “The road between Iraq and Jordan will be cut off to Jordanian trucks carrying goods to Iraq, except for those carrying medical and foodstuffs…Take heed from our warning,” he said.
After the warning two Jordanian citizens: Ahmad Hussein and Fayez Adwan were held hostage in Iraq. As a result, the employer of the two drivers announced Tuesday that it had agreed to halt its operations there in a bid to spare their lives.
“We are terminating our activities in Iraq,” Daoud and Partners executive director, Rami Uweiss, told AFP. “We have taken this decision for humanitarian reasons and out of a concern to assure the safety of our staff and obtain the release of our two drivers,” said Uweiss, whose company has been working under contract to the US military.
Source: The Jordan Times