French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and several of his ministers held a crisis meeting Sunday morning in response to the kidnapping of two French journalists in Iraq, a spokesman for the foreign ministry said. The French embassy in Baghdad and authorities in France have been mobilized to try to bring about the swift release of the two men, the spokesman said. Georges Malbrunot, a journalist with the leading French daily Le Figaro and Christian Chesnot of Radio France Internationale were kidnapped in Najaf by Islamic militants who demanded that France end its ban on Moslem headscarves in schools, reports said Saturday. The militants, who called themselves the Islamic Army in Iraq, gave Paris 48 hours to respond and threatened to kill the hostages if their demand was not met. Islamic authorities in France rejected the threat and said kidnappings were not the way to reverse the headscarf ban.
