Baghdad: Eight employees of a Russian energy company were freed by their abductors in Iraq today (April 13, 2004) but fears grew for three Japanese hostages after a deadline for their execution passed without news.

As a wave of politically motivated kidnappings showed no sign of abating, Russian Industry and Energy Ministry spokesman Yury Nogotkov said the Ukrainian and Russian workers had been released within 24 hours of their abduction.

"I can only tell you one thing, that they have been freed," he said without elaborating.

The employees of a Russian firm involved in the reconstruction of the war-shattered country were abducted by 15 to 20 masked and armed men from their house in Baghdad yesterday, Russian officials said.

It is not clear who abducted the workers, where they were held or what brought about their release.

More than a dozen foreigners are missing or abducted in Iraq amid a spate of kidnappings apparently designed to weaken the resolve of US coalition partners.

Three Czech journalists have not been seen since they were reported snatched, also at gunpoint, from a taxi as they attempted to make their way out of Iraq to Jordan on April 11.

The Iraqi interim authorities sent a team today to the area outside Baghdad where the Czechs disappeared in a bid to find out what happened to them, the Czech Ambassador to Iraq, Martin Klepetko, said.