Nigeria oil militants kidnap Scot

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Militants in Nigeria's Niger Delta region have kidnapped a Scottish oil worker and killed his police guard.

The attack happened in the Rivers State capital Port Harcourt, security sources confirmed on Monday.

The man has not been identified officially but it is believed he works for a Nigerian oil services company.

Militants are holding two other British hostages kidnapped in September last year, which they say they will only release if a jailed leader is freed.

Demands

The latest expatriate worker to be kidnapped was travelling in an armed convoy through Port Harcourt when militants attacked on Sunday.

<a class="" href="/1/hi/world/africa/7500472.stm"> Elusive peace in Nigeria's oil Delta </a>

Police say a police officer was shot dead during the attack, Associated Press news agency reported.

The Briton works for Adamac Industries Ltd, private security sources told Reuters news agency.

Kidnapping by militant groups is common in the Niger Delta, where hundreds of expatriates and many more Nigerian workers have been seized for ransom in the last three years.

Robin Hughes and Matthew Maguire have been held by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) for almost six months.

A spokesman for the organisation says they will only be freed if Mend leader Henry Okah is released from jail.

He is currently facing the death penalty on treason and gun-running charges at a trial being held in secret in the northern city of Jos.

Mend says it is fighting for a fairer distribution of Nigeria's oil wealth, but many armed groups in the Delta fund themselves through kidnapping, extortion and oil theft.