British ground forces and U.S. military helicopters fought with gunmen on Friday in an area of southern Iraq where four American security contractors and their Austrian co-worker were taken hostage after their convoy was hijacked, British and Iraqi officials said. Two of the gunmen were killed in the fighting, and it was not known whether the five hostages were being held in the area at the time, said Capt. Tane Dunlop, a spokesman for British forces, and an Iraqi police officer, according to a report of the Associated Press.
