Turkish hostages threatened

The kidnappers demanded public protest of Bush's visit to Turkey.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Militants loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said Saturday they have kidnapped three Turkish workers and threatened to behead them in 72 hours, heightening tensions as President Bush visited Turkey.
In new violence, an explosion possibly from a car bomb ripped through downtown Hillah, a largely Shiite Muslim city south of Baghdad, killing 19 people and wounding around 60, a senior Iraqi police official said. The official described the blast as a vicious attack on Iraqi civilians.
The bloodshed and the abduction -- the latest claimed by al-Zarqawi's movement, which beheaded two previous hostages from the United States and South Korea -- threatened to cast a shadow over a NATO summit opening Monday in Istanbul, where Bush is seeking the alliance's help in stabilizing Iraq.
The kidnappers demanded that the Turks hold demonstrations protesting the visit by the "criminal" Bush and that Turkish companies stop working in Iraq, or else the hostages would be killed.
Possible election delay
Iraq's interim prime minister warned that if security does not improve, it may become necessary to delay national elections set for January -- a key landmark in the path to democracy that the United States has tried to enshrine before handing power to the Iraqis on Wednesday.
The Jan. 31 deadline for elections laid out in Iraq's interim constitution is "not absolute yet. ... But we hope, and all of us will work toward that objective," Iyad Allawi told CBS News in an interview.
In central Baghdad, insurgents killed a U.S. soldier in an attack on a patrol Saturday, the military said.
Gunmen launched new attacks in the city of Baqouba, northeast of the capital, sparking battles that killed six insurgents and three civilians. The city was the scene of fierce fighting in a surprise offensive al-Zarqawi launched Thursday.
Video of hostages
The Arab television station Al-Jazeera aired a video issued by the kidnappers, showing the three Turks kneeling on the ground in front of two black-clothed gunmen and a black banner emblazoned "Tawhid and Jihad," the name of al-Zarqawi's organization. The men held up Turkish passports.
In a written statement, the group demanded that Turkish companies stop doing business with American forces in Iraq and called for "large demonstrations" in Turkey against the visit of "Bush the criminal."
It said if Turkey refused their demands, the hostages "will receive the just punishment of being beheaded."
Al-Jazeera received the tape Saturday, an employee at the station told The Associated Press. The statement did not say when or where the three were abducted. It appeared the deadline was Tuesday, but the message did not specify what time it runs out.
The three men disappeared two days ago, said a Turkish consular official in Baghdad who asked to be identified only by his surname, Gungor. He said he had no further information.
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