American, British workers seized in Nigeria, police say

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (AP) _ Unidentified assailants seized two foreign oil workers Tuesday in the latest kidnapping to hit restive southern Nigeria, police said. <br/><br/>The hostages included one American

Tuesday, January 23rd 2007, 6:22 am

By: News On 6

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (AP) _ Unidentified assailants seized two foreign oil workers Tuesday in the latest kidnapping to hit restive southern Nigeria, police said.

The hostages included one American man, said Rivers State police spokeswoman Irejua Barasua. U.S. Embassy officials were not immediately available for comment.

The other man was a Briton, said a colleague who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media. The pair worked for a Nigeria-registered oil services company, Pivot Engineering, he said.

The fellow oil-industry worker said he called one of the hostage's mobile phones and a man with a Nigerian accent immediately rang back from that number saying the two had been taken hostage.

British Embassy officials had no immediate comment.

One of the main militant groups in the region said it was not responsible for the attack.

``There is a booming trade in hostages in these parts,'' the group's spokesman said in an e-mail message to The Associated Press.

There have been nearly 100 kidnappings during the past year in the southern Niger Delta region of Africa's largest crude producer. Despite the vast energy stores lying beneath their lands, most of the region's people are mired in deep poverty and hostage-takings for ransom have become common.

Hostages are generally released unharmed, although casualties sometimes occur during gunfights between the hostage-takers and the military forces that patrol the vast region of swamps and creeks. At least 11 foreigners are believed to remain in captivity.

A new militant group that emerged last year has hit Nigeria's oil industry with attacks that have trimmed nearly one quarter of the country's normal 2.5 million barrel per day crude production.