IRAQ France says hostages held by insurgents are alive

France's government was asked to lift a ban on Muslim head-scarves in schools.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- France said it had received word that two French reporters seized in Iraq were alive, and one of their employers claimed the kidnappers had handed them over to an Iraqi opposition group, raising hopes the hostages soon could be released.
Separately, two U.S. soldiers were wounded when their convoy came under attack while on patrol near the city of Tikrit, the U.S. military said in a statement today. It said the two soldiers were hit by shrapnel during the attack late Thursday but gave no details of their condition.
Careful optimism
Jean de Belot, managing editor of Le Figaro newspaper, said the militants who claimed to be holding the French reporters, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, have handed them over to a Sunni Muslim opposition group.
He said the group favors their release, but he stressed their status wasn't clear.
"That is an extremely positive point," de Belot told French radio. "But we must be prudent in this kind of mixed-up situation because we know well that until the good news arrives, we can't let ourselves be absolutely reassured."
In Amman, Jordan, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier also sounded cautiously optimistic.
"According to the indications which were given to us and [that] we are studying at this moment with caution, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot are alive, in good health and are being well-treated," he said at a news conference.
The reports came amid frantic activity to win the releases -- efforts spurred by the expiration of a deadline for the French government to revoke a ban on the wearing of Muslim headscarves in public schools. The law took effect Thursday.
A militant group calling itself "The Islamic Army of Iraq" said it had kidnapped the reporters and demanded that France lift its headscarf ban, but the government refused. Malbrunot, 41, reports for the daily Le Figaro and Chesnot, 37, is with Radio France International. They disappeared along with their Syrian driver after setting off for the southern city of Najaf on Aug. 19.
Kidnapping tactics
Militants waging a violent 16-month insurgency in Iraq have increasingly turned to kidnapping foreigners in an effort to drive out coalition forces and contractors. In the past week, militants killed an Italian journalist and 12 Nepalese workers, while seven truckers from India, Kenya and Egypt were released after their employer paid a $500,000 ransom.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged that the Bush administration miscalculated the strength of the insurgency.
"Let's remember who is causing this trouble. It's not the United States. It's not the coalition forces that are there," Powell said in an interview Wednesday with Panama's TVN Channel 2.
But he conceded that "it is clear we did not expect an insurgency that would be this strong."
The Defense Department announced this week that the death toll for U.S. military personnel in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 was 975 and the number of wounded was approaching 7,000.