Iraq delays event to pick assembly

Militants have threatened to disrupt the supply chain to the U.S. military.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraq will open a three-day national conference to choose an interim assembly Saturday, delaying the start by two days at the request of the United Nations, organizers said today.
The conference, considered a key step in the nation's democratic transformation, will be attended by 1,000 delegates who will select members of a 100-member interim assembly to shepherd the nation to its first elections scheduled for January.
The date and location of the conference had been kept secret because of security fears. Under a law enacted by the outgoing U.S. occupation authority last month, it was to have been held by the end of the month.
Meanwhile, militants bent on disrupting the supply chain to the U.S. military threatened today to cut the highway linking Iraq to Jordan in 72 hours and said they would hit at Jordanians as well as Americans.
The threat, from a group calling itself "The Group of Death," was made in a video obtained by Associated Press Television News. The video showed seven men wearing black clothing and masks armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers and rifles.
Wave of kidnappings
The group's warning comes amid a wave of kidnappings of foreigners, mainly truck drivers, entering Iraq from neighboring countries to deliver supplies and other cargo needed for this war-ravaged nation's reconstruction effort.
A militant who read a statement on the tape criticized Jordan, Iraq's southern neighbor, for letting trucking companies enter Iraq to support the U.S.-led coalition.
"We consider all Jordanian interests, companies and businessmen and citizens as much a target as the Americans," the speaker said.
The chief executive of a Jordanian company working for the U.S. military in Iraq said today he would pull out of the country to win the release of two employees kidnapped by militants and threatened with decapitation.
"I am ceasing operations and pulling out from the company's premises in Iraq for humanitarian reasons, and out of my concern for the safety and the lives of my two employees who were kidnapped in Iraq," Rami al-Ouweiss told The Associated Press.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.