Americans Believed Captured in Iraq Ambush

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16, 2006 — -- Four Americans are believed to be among 14 people kidnapped in an ambush of a convoy of contractors in Iraq near the city of Nasariyah, defense officials tell ABC News.

Coalition forces have been mobilized to find the people taken by the ambushers, the defense officials said.

The incident took place this afternoon in a normally peaceful part of southern Iraq. A convoy run by a Kuwaiti-based company called Crescent Security Group was driving from near the Kuwaiti border to an Italian base near the City of Nasariyah.

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Early in the trip, the convoy stopped at what looked like an Iraqi police checkpoint, military officials said. Initial reports say 19 trucks were seized and approximately 14 people, including four Americans detained.

There is still a great deal of confusion about whether the checkpoint was operated by real Iraqi police or by a Shiia militia, the officials said.

Nasariyah is the same place where Jessica Lynch was kidnapped in an ambush of the 507th Maintenance Company in March 2003.