(Reuters)
BAGHDAD -- Guerrillas attacked a 21-vehicle civilian supply convoy on its way to Baghdad from Jordan on Tuesday and several people are unaccounted for, a senior U.S. military official said.
Several vehicles in the convoy were destroyed in the attack close to Rutba, near the Jordanian border, he told reporters without indicating the nationalities of those missing.
"A number of people are, as of a couple of hours ago, still unaccounted for," the official said.
The convoy may have belonged to a sub-contractor to Kellogg, Brown & Root, which supplies U.S. troops in Iraq, and did not appear to have had any military escort, he said.
A KBR spokeswoman told Reuters she was unaware of any attack on Tuesday on a convoy run either by the company or a sub-contractor.
Last month, guerrillas hit many civilian convoys, including one in which Mississippi truck driver Thomas Hamill was captured and held hostage for three weeks before he escaped from a remote shack on hearing the vehicles of a U.S. patrol.
Coordinated attacks on convoys have diminished recently, although they are still the target of roadside bombs, a favorite weapon of guerrillas fighting the U.S.-led force occupying Iraq.
BAGHDAD -- Guerrillas attacked a 21-vehicle civilian supply convoy on its way to Baghdad from Jordan on Tuesday and several people are unaccounted for, a senior U.S. military official said.
Several vehicles in the convoy were destroyed in the attack close to Rutba, near the Jordanian border, he told reporters without indicating the nationalities of those missing.
"A number of people are, as of a couple of hours ago, still unaccounted for," the official said.
The convoy may have belonged to a sub-contractor to Kellogg, Brown & Root, which supplies U.S. troops in Iraq, and did not appear to have had any military escort, he said.
A KBR spokeswoman told Reuters she was unaware of any attack on Tuesday on a convoy run either by the company or a sub-contractor.
Last month, guerrillas hit many civilian convoys, including one in which Mississippi truck driver Thomas Hamill was captured and held hostage for three weeks before he escaped from a remote shack on hearing the vehicles of a U.S. patrol.
Coordinated attacks on convoys have diminished recently, although they are still the target of roadside bombs, a favorite weapon of guerrillas fighting the U.S.-led force occupying Iraq.
