Four US security men and an Austrian have been kidnapped from a convoy of civilians in southern Iraq.
The convoy of 19 vehicles, operated by a Kuwait-based security service, was attacked yesterday.
Unconfirmed reports said the incident took place at a bogus checkpoint, and nine other civilians were released.
A source in a militant group in Basra told reporters that it was holding the foreigners, but he gave no details.
A company representative for the Crescent Security Group in Kuwait said all other people in the convoy its employees were guarding had been accounted for.
The representative also said that British forces were looking into the fate of the five kidnapped men.
Warrant issued for Sunni cleric
Iraq's Shia-led government was trying to distance itself from an arrest warrant issued for the country's most prominent Sunni cleric after Sunni politicians warned it could fuel sectarian tension.
Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih said the warrant for Harith al-Dari was issued by the judiciary, not the government.
Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani had told state television in a dramatic announcement late yesterday that Mr Dari, who is in Jordan, was wanted for terrorism.
Harith al-Dari, who is head of the Muslim Clerics Association, has described attacks on US troops as 'legitimate resistance'.
