http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/04/13/1081838719322.htmlRussia's biggest contractor in Iraq is evacuating all its 370 staff from the country after at least 40 civilians being taken hostage.
The state-owned Tekhpromexport company, which employs most of the 500 Russians working to rebuild the country, is building a power station about 60 kilometres outside Baghdad.
Earlier, eight workers from a Russian engineering firm - five Ukrainians and three Russians - were released after being kidnapped in Baghdad.
The hostage crisis has added a new dimension to the conflict as US forces fought Sunni and Shiite guerillas in the bloodiest violence since the fall of Saddam Hussein a year ago.
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