American forces have managed to free four Egyptian engineers who were abducted in Baghdad on Sunday, the Egyptian MENA reported on Monday.

Farouq Mabrouk, head of the Egyptian diplomatic mission to Iraq, told MENA that he received information on the release of the four Egyptians from the US embassy in Iraq.

The Egyptians were identified as Mohammed al-Saadi, Hosni Ashour, Waleed Ismail and Sayed Shaaban.

They were technicians employed by Mobiservice, a subcontractor for Iraqna and subsidiary of the Egyptian Orascom Telecom that operates the mobile phone network in Baghdad and central Iraq.

Six Egyptian employees of the firm were abducted last September but were subsequently released.

(Xinhua News Agency February 8, 2005)