BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) – The British military confirmed Saturday that two Macedonians working for a cleaning company have been abducted in southern Iraq. A ransom has been demanded for their release.

Maj. Peter Cripps said the two men were abducted Thursday morning in Basra, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, while driving with a Macedonian woman who worked for the same company, called Ecolog.

“They were in a vehicle traveling between two locations and during that route they were somehow abducted,” Cripps told The Associated Press.