A deadline set by kidnappers threatening to kill eight Chinese expired on Thursday with no word on the hostages' fate, as more bloodshed marred the start of the Muslim feast of Eid-ul-Azha. The 48-hour deadline handed Beijing to "clarify" its position in Iraq expired with no news on the eight, but Chinese diplomats remained confident they would be released.
The Xinhua news agency reported that Chinese diplomats were in talks with the Committee of Muslim Scholars, but the embassy in Baghdad and the influential body of conservative Sunni clerics declined to comment.
On Tuesday, kidnappers released footage to Al-Jazeera television of the eight hostages holding Chinese passports, and claimed they were helping the US military build facilities in Iraq.
Beijing opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 but like other nations, its companies have been pursuing lucrative reconstruction contracts in the war-ravaged country.
The Committee of Muslim Scholars, which has mediated the release of foreign hostages in the past, called on Wednesday for the release of all people still held by various groups.
The US military said a Brazilian national was also reported missing in Iraq after an ambush north of Baghdad.
Rebels are betting a wave of bloodshed will discredit the country's first free elections in half a century and the first since the downfall of Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003.
In Sunni areas north of Baghdad, insurgent attacks claimed more lives Thursday, although the capital was calm for the first day of Eid al-Adha, the most important date in the Muslim calendar.
Four Iraqi soldiers were killed in an ambush on a convoy in the city of Samarra, north of Baghdad, police said. Two soldiers were killed Wednesday in similar circumstances near Samarra.
An Iraqi soldier was killed and another wounded Thursday in a mortar attack on a military position in Siniya, west of the troubled city of Baiji, police said.
And a civilian was killed and three others were wounded, including a four-year-old girl, when Iraqi soldiers mistakenly opened fire on them near Tikrit.
US military and Iraqi government officials fear rebels opposing the principle of democratic elections will attempt to disrupt the voting process on January by perpetrating an unprecedented wave of attacks.
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