By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The British government issued a new appeal Monday for information about five Britons who were taken hostage in Iraq nearly two months ago.
The captives - four security guards and a consultant - were abducted from the Iraqi Finance Ministry by some 40 heavily armed men who took them in the direction of Baghdad's sprawling Shi'ite district of Sadr City.
"It's now 55 days since the five British men were taken. We and their families are increasingly concerned for their welfare," Matthew Lodge, the British chargé d'affaires in Baghdad told reporters at the embassy building.
"We have no evidence about their conditions and we would like to know they are alive and well," Lodge added. "We remain willing to listen and talk to those who may have any information about our people."