The latest kidnapping, however, was portrayed in Moscow as the last straw: an intolerable humiliation aided by Chechen authorities.

With the latest kidnappings, 27 foreigners are believed held in Lebanon by extremists of various political leanings.

But the latest kidnapping has not ended so well.

West Germany has yet to decide if it will extradite to the United States a suspected Lebanese hijacker whose detention may have triggered the latest kidnappings in Beirut.

The latest kidnapping came the day after the group assassinated a minister of the Kurdish parliament in what the authorities describe as an intricately laid trap.

No group claimed responsibility for the latest kidnappings.

In the latest kidnapping of a foreign worker, an Egyptian man working for a cellphone company was taken from his car by armed men in Baghdad on Monday afternoon.

His detention may have touched off the latest kidnappings in Beirut.

A total of 19 foreign hostages were known to be held in Lebanon as of Friday, before the latest kidnappings.

The latest kidnappings, after the taking of four West German hostages in Lebanon last week, were apparently intended to neutralize this device of extradition and trial.