Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

In Iraq office, gunmenstorm in, seize dozens

Shiite militiamen are suspected of forcing the men onto trucks. Six police officers are held.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published November 15, 2006

BAGHDAD - Suspected Shiite militiamen dressed as Interior Ministry commandos stormed a Higher Education Ministry office Tuesday and kidnapped dozens of people after clearing the area under the guise of providing security for what they claimed would be a visit by the U.S. ambassador.

Witnesses and authorities said the gunmen raced through all four stories of the building, forced men and women into separate rooms, handcuffed the men and loaded them aboard about 20 pickup trucks.

Shortly afterward, authorities arrested six senior police officers in connection with the abductions - the police chief and five top subordinates in the Karradah district. The officers worked in the central Baghdad region where the kidnappers struck, said Maj. Gen. Jalil Khalaf, an Interior Ministry spokesman.

There were varying estimates of the number of people kidnapped, but it appeared that at least 50 were seized - one of the largest mass abductions in Iraq.

Authorities said as many as 20 were later released. The assault came on a day that saw at least 117 people die in the mounting disorder and violence gripping the country.

The abductions in broad daylight raised further questions about Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's commitment to wiping out the heavily armed Shiite militias of his prime political backers: the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Maliki faces intense pressure from the United States to disband and disarm the militias and their death squads, which are deeply involved in the country's sectarian slaughter and are believed to have thoroughly infiltrated the police and security forces.

The top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, Gen. John Abizaid, warned Maliki at a meeting on Monday that he must disband the militias, according to senior Iraqi government officials.

Maliki, who leads a Shiite-dominated government, appeared to minimize the importance of the kidnappings. "What is happening is not terrorism, but the result of disagreements and conflict between militias," he said in televised remarks at a meeting with President Jalal Talabani.

That response was likely to prompt deeper concerns among the U.S. military and the Bush administration. The Americans have tried for 44 months to put in place a democratic and multiethnic government. Since taking office in May, Maliki has essentially refused to reach out to the Sunnis, who ran Iraq for decades under Saddam Hussein.

Iraqi officials gave wildly differing accounts of how many people were abducted in the raid on the Ministry of Higher Education office that handles academic grants and exchanges. Figures ranged from as many as 150 to as few as 45.

By late Tuesday the top estimate, given by Higher Education Minister Abed Theyab, appeared to have been inflated. Both the Interior and Defense ministries said no more than 50 people were abducted. But the lower figure included only employees known to have been at work and did not count an unknown number of people in the offices on business.

[Last modified November 15, 2006, 01:58:19]