Reply #1: In Iraq, growing number of foreign truckers refuse to brave dangerous road [View All]

[Barrett808]

In Iraq, growing number of foreign truckers refuse to brave dangerous roads
By Todd Pitman, Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) On his first journey to Iraq in eight months, Jordanian truck driver Faisal Suleyman was followed, pulled over and robbed by four men in a sky-blue taxi brandishing automatic weapons.

The trip will be his last, he said Tuesday, placing him among a growing number of foreign drivers whose cargo is vital to Iraq's reconstruction refusing to brave the gantlet of kidnappings, robberies and other violence plaguing the country.

''Nobody wants to come here, it's not safe,'' Suleyman told The Associated Press in the cab of his 16-wheeler Mercedes at a wind-swept truck-stop on the outskirts of Baghdad.

Hitting home that point, black-masked, armed militants calling themselves ''The Group of Death'' threatened in a video Tuesday to sever the main highway linking Iraq to Jordan in 72 hours and target Jordanians to stop supplies from reaching U.S. troops.

''We consider all Jordanian interests, companies and businessmen and citizens as much a target as the Americans,'' one militant said in the video obtained by Associated Press Television News.

(more)

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/209/world/In_Iraq_growing_number_of_fore:.shtml