Coalition tried to rescue hostages

WASHINGTON -- Coalition personnel mounted two operations last month to rescue members of a group of three hostages held by Iraq, but they didn't find them, a US government official said yesterday.

British civil engineer Kenneth Bigley and US engineers Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley were the targets of the rescue. They were kidnapped from their homes in Baghdad on Sept. 16.

The first operation came before Sept. 20, when Armstrong is believed to have been beheaded by his captors, the US official said, discussing sensitive operations only on the condition of anonymity. The second came after Armstrong's death but before that of Hensley, which was reported Sept. 21.