French reporter missing from Baghdad
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-01-07 10:50

A French reporter and her Iraqi interpreter have gone missing from Baghdad, prompting searches for her in hospitals and elsewhere, French officials said Thursday.

The French daily Liberation said it has not heard from Florence Aubenas for more than 24 hours. French, Iraqi and U.S. authorities have been alerted, it added.

"We're devastated," said Francois Sergent, head of the daily's foreign service.

He said they were clinging to the hope that she may have been detained by U.S. or Iraqi forces.

"We are waiting, with a little hope," he said. Normally, she is in contact with the paper at least twice a day, he added.

Aubenas, 43, and her interpreter Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi "haven't been seen since they left their hotel in Baghdad Wednesday morning," Liberation said on its Web site.

The foreign ministry said French authorities in Baghdad and in Paris have made "all efforts" to find the two since Liberation gave word that they were missing. Officials said searches have been undertaken, notably in hospitals.

When Aubenas did not check in Wednesday, "we called the hotel when we started to worry," Sergent said. Staff there told them they saw the two leave, he said.

Aubenas has worked for Liberation since 1986 and has covered Kosovo, Algeria, Rwanda, and Afghanistan. She had been in Baghdad since Dec. 16 — her second trip to Iraq, Sergent said.

"She is tough and very experienced," he said.

Al-Saadi has been working with Liberation's reporters for more than two years, the newspaper said.

While maintaining a presence in Baghdad, Liberation's reporters no longer travel outside of the Iraqi capital because of attacks and the risk of kidnappings, Sergent said.

Aubenas was working on stories about women candidates in Iraq's Jan. 30 elections and was seeking to meet refugees from Fallujah, the restive city that U.S.-Iraqi forces invaded in November, Liberation's chairman, Serge July said.

Although Iraq is dangerous for reporters, "We believe that there is an electoral process under way and that it is difficult not to cover it," he told LCI television.

Government officials said Aubenas may have been kidnapped, wounded, killed or arrested in error by U.S. or Iraqi forces.

The foreign ministry reiterated that it advises against travel to Iraq, including for reporters.

The announcement comes weeks after two other French journalists were released on Dec. 21 after being held by militants in a four-month drama that had gripped the country, which opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot had been held by a group calling itself the Islamic Army of Iraq, which has killed hostages in the past.

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