All were either unemployed or working in menial jobs

All were either unemployed or working in menial jobs.Their families and some of their associates leapt to their defence. “They are good citizens and good members of the community,” said Khalid Qazi, a local leader of the American Muslim Council.. Colombian soldiers have rescued a boy from the clutches of leftist guerrillas in a gun battle that left two of his captors dead. The other children were released on the day of the kidnapping but the rebels kept Kevin. Five thousand children marched in protest in the town of Ocana, near the Venezuelan border, where the children were snatched.President Alvaro Uribe told his troops he wanted quick results. Even the ELN high command disowned the abduction by some of its militiamen and issued a statement saying the boy should be set free.But despite the promises of the rebel group, which has said it is seeking peace talks with the government, Mr Uribe’s troops did not wait. Acting on a tip-off from residents, security forces tracked the kidnappers to San Calixto – a mountainous region outside Ocana, about 254 miles northeast of the capital, Bogota.They launched the raid on Saturday, killing two guerrillas and arresting two more, according to General Martin Carreno, an army commander.The boy told Colombian television yesterday about his ordeal “They made me walk 10 hours the first day,” he said.

“Then another five hours that night.” He hid in some trees near a stream as the fighting erupted around him and escaped unharmed, he said.Kidnappings occur once every three hours in Colombia, where rebel armies have fought the state for 38 years. During the first seven months of this year, 228 children were kidnapped, according to the Free Colombia Foundation.Mr Uribe has made it clear that he will not make any concessions to the ELN and has demanded a ceasefire before any peace talks resume. He has boosted his armed forces and granted them sweeping new powers to crack down on rebel groups.The army said yesterday it had also killed a member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, who was allegedly behind the assassination of three American pro-Indian rights activists in 1999. The man, Gustavo Samanay Diaz, died in a gunfight with government troops last Monday, General Carreno said.The rescue of Kevin and the killing of Diaz are a propaganda coup for Mr Uribe, who is under fire from groups which say human rights are being trampled on in the war against the rebels.. “Everybody is obliged to follow through” he said.In an interview in Al-Hayat, the London-based Arabic newspaper, the Prince urged Iraq to admit UN weapons inspectors before a new Security Council resolution cleared the way for an attack if it refused. “Timing is important, and allowing inspectors back before a Security Council resolution to that effect would be in Iraq’s favour,” he said.”We are afraid that [a refusal] would harm the Iraqi people and increase their burden.

We are worried about Iraq’s unity, stability and independence,” the Prince said. In a separate interview with the BBC, he said Iraq could “finish the crisis” by inviting weapons inspectors in. The Iraqi people would be spared “great hardships”.Some 20 Arab foreign ministers of countries which make up the Arab League met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly at the weekend and also delivered a message calculated to step up the pressure on Baghdad over weapons inspections.”We said loudly and clearly that we are for the integrity of Iraq, for the stability of Iraq as well as for the full implementation of all the resolutions regarding Iraq,” said the Lebanese Foreign Minister, Mahmoud Hammoud. “We would like to see the observers going back to Iraq and with them will come peace for the Iraqi people and stability for Iraq. We are hoping to reach an arrangement for everybody and for peace in general.”The Egyptian Foreign Minister, Ahmed Maher, said he stressed to Iraq’s Foreign Minister, Naji Sabri, that the Arab League wanted the inspectors back and that he should consult Baghdad and get a decision.