Virginia Man Among Iraq Hostages

Fox had just recently moved from Northern Virginia to Clear Brook, a small town located eight miles northeast of Winchester, where he spent time on his leaves from Iraq. "He moved from this area to live in a loft in a garage behind a church," said Maulden. "He wanted to do that to be around peace and quiet and to be around things that were green after his time in Iraq."

Al-Jazeera said a statement by insurgents that accompanied the video charged the men with "working undercover as Christian peace activists."

Members of Christian Peacemaker said they were well aware of the dangers of doing their work in a war zone. Kimberly Prince, a full-time member of the group who is based in Colombia, said no one had ever been kidnapped in the history of the organization.

"Certainly all of us are aware we are working in war zones and what that means," she said. "It means we are all at risk for the things that everyone in a war zone is at risk for. That includes kidnapping, rape, torture and violence of all kinds. I think people are aware of the risk they are taking when they go into these situations."

Friends said they began hearing Sunday that Fox might have been one of the four workers who were abducted. A prayer service was held Sunday night at the Langley Hill Friends Meeting and about 400 people attended, Maulden said. He said people have agreed to pray each day at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. for the hostages' release.

"He is the most pleasant person you can imagine being around," said Maulden. "He is very low-key, very calm, very centered with a great sense of humor. When he first went over there and began sending back e-mails, he wasn't very good at it because he was giving us a feeling of what was going on around him, but not saying what was going on inside of him. He has gotten so good at describing life there."

The latest kidnappings were among several abductions and other violence reported recently as Iraq prepares for elections on Dec. 15.

In a separate kidnapping, a German woman and her driver were shown sitting blindfolded in another video delivered to a German television network in Baghdad. Family members in Germany said Susanne Osthoff, 43, and her driver had been missing since Friday.

Osthoff has worked in Iraq since the 1990s, speaks Arabic and had been helping distribute medical supplies to Iraqis, her family said. In the video, kidnappers threatened to kill her and her driver unless Germany ends all cooperation with the U.S.-backed Iraqi government, according to the Reuters news agency. Germany has no troops in Iraq but has trained Iraqi security forces outside the country.

The British government reported Tuesday that one of five Britons attacked by gunmen south of Baghdad Monday had died of her wounds. Two victims of the attack were killed immediately and the other two were in critical condition, the British Embassy said.

Two U.S. soldiers were killed on patrol Tuesday by a roadside bomb in Baghdad, according to a statement. U.S. military authorities did not immediately release their names.

In Tarmiya, 30 miles north of Baghdad, eight Iraqi soldiers were killed Tuesday when a suicide bomber drove into an Iraqi army patrol, the Associated Press reported.