China bowed to the demands of the terrorist group Nuamaan Brigade of the Islamic Resistance and issued a statement that all Chinese should stay out of Iraq. The terrorists said they would free the 8 Chinese hostages if China issued the statement. Once again a nation bows to the terrorist groups and encourages more hostage taking. In July the Philippines pulled troops out when a Filipino hostage was threatened by terrorists.

Insurgents in Iraq released eight Chinese laborers they had taken hostage, after China advised its nationals to stay away from the war-torn country.

A video made by the captors and seen by Reuters showed the eight men standing or kneeling in two rows in the desert, holding their passports open.

"Based on the goodwill gesture by the Chinese government, which included a state ban on Chinese entering Iraq, the Numaan Brigades have decided to release the eight," the speaker on the tape said.

China's embassy in Baghdad later confirmed that the eight had been released, the official Xinhua news agency said. On the tape, a man with his face covered with a traditional checkered headdress shook hands with each of the hostages before they walked off camera.

The speaker in the video said no ransom had been paid and the hostages had not been harmed during their captivity.

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