WORLD : 2 Britons Deny Iraqi Rape Story

LONDON — Two British airline flight attendants have denied a Tunisian colleague’s claim that they were raped by Iraqi soldiers in Kuwait, a Foreign Office spokesman said today.

“They told us they were not raped or assaulted and they said they were safe and well,” the spokesman said.

Nawal Bel Hadj, 24, said in Amman on Monday that she had seen Iraqi troops rape five Kuwaiti Airlines flight attendants--two Britons, two Egyptians and a Filipina--in a hostel in Kuwait city Aug. 7, five days after the Iraqi invasion.

“The Iraqi soldiers were like crazy, rabid dogs. These people had never seen women in their lives. They are savages,” Bel Hadj said. “I will never forget these atrocities.”

Government sources in London said the two British flight attendants were interviewed by a British Embassy official in Kuwait after Bel Hadj spoke to reporters.