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Iraqi aid workers kidnapped

Six of two dozen Red Crescent employees who were abducted were later released.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published December 18, 2006

BAGHDAD - Most international humanitarian groups have long since fled Iraq - the lives of their employees threatened and their buildings and vehicles targeted by bombs. But the overwhelming majority of Iraqi Red Crescent workers are local, and its offices in Baghdad stayed open.

Days ago, a Red Crescent official said even Iraq's insurgents respected the neutrality of an organization tied to the international Red Cross movement.

But on Sunday, a working day in downtown Baghdad, men in Iraqi army uniforms pulled up to the Red Crescent offices in pickup trucks and kidnapped two dozen employees of the humanitarian group at gunpoint, snaring three security guards at the neighboring Dutch embassy in their mass abduction.

The abduction was the latest in a series of such attacks that have targeted workers at factories, delegates at a sports conference and bystanders at bus stations. In most cases, the gunmen wore police or military uniforms. Their identity and motives were unclear, though the sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shiites has fueled much of the recent violence in Baghdad.

The Associated Press reported that a Red Crescent official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of safety concerns said that the unidentified gunmen left women behind and that six workers were later released.

The Dutch Foreign Ministry said one of the three Iraqi security guards kidnapped from its embassy building was later released.

The Red Crescent, part of the international Red Cross movement, has about 1,000 staff and 200,000 volunteers in Iraq. It works closely with the International Committee of the Red Cross, which visits detainees and tries to provide food, water and medicine to Iraqis.

Pierre Kraehenbuehl, the International Committee's director of operations, said it was the only aid organization able to work throughout Iraq. It's also the only country where the International Committee, whose Baghdad headquarters was bombed in 2003, travels incognito for fear that its symbol could be taken as a target by armed groups rather than an emblem of protection.

"We urge all those who have, or may have, or may use their moral or political influence on the ground, to call for respect of human rights and dignity," Kraehenbuehl said.

Antonella Notari, another Red Cross official in Geneva, said the organization was in contact with the Iraqi Interior Ministry, which denied any involvement and was searching for the abductees.

Some Iraqi police and military units have been infiltrated by Shiite militias linked to ruling political parties.

Mazin Abdellaha, secretary-general of the Iraqi Red Crescent, said the agency "helps all people regardless of their sect or ethnicity," Abdellaha said.

Kraehenbuehl dismissed suggestions that the abduction was linked to recent comments by the Iraqi Red Crescent's vice president, Dr. Jamal al-Karbouli, that American forces represented a greater danger to its work than militants in the Sunni-dominated insurgency.

"The insurgents, they are Iraqis, a lot of them are Iraqis, and they respect the Iraqis. And they respect our (the Red Crescent's) identity, which is neutrality," Karbouli said Friday.

Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said in response that the U.S.-led coalition forces "strive to ensure they are respectful when they conduct interaction with the local population."

3 U.S. soldiers killed

On Sunday, the U.S. military said a roadside bomb killed three American soldiers and injured a fourth serviceman north of Baghdad. The soldiers were clearing a route so another unit could move through the area on Saturday, the military said. The toll raised to 57 the number of Americans killed in Iraq in December.

Police said Sunday they had found 36 bodies in the Baghdad area. The dead included four members of a Sunni tribe who met an Iraqi battalion commander to discuss security, the Iraqi army said. Two policemen, an Iraqi soldier and a municipal official were killed in Baghdad, and a police officer was slain in Kut.

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. iraq developments

Reid backs plan for troop surge

Incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid offered qualified support Sunday for a plan to increase U.S. troops in Iraq, saying it would be acceptable as part of a broader strategy to bring combat forces home by 2008. But Colin Powell, President Bush's former secretary of state, expressed doubts that any troop surge would be effective, noting that U.S. forces already are overextended. "The American Army isn't large enough to secure Baghdad," said Colin Powell, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman during the 1991 Gulf War.

Blair urges support

British Prime Minister Tony Blair took his Middle East peace tour to Iraq on Sunday, urging support for its fragile government. Blair told some of the 7,000 British troops serving in southern Iraq that they were fighting on behalf of "people of tolerance and moderation" around the world. Blair also met Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and U.S. officials in Baghdad.

. iraq developments

Reid backs plan for troop surge

WASHINGTON - Incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid offered qualified support Sunday for a plan to increase U.S. troops in Iraq, saying it would be acceptable as part of a broader strategy to bring combat forces home by 2008. But Colin Powell, President Bush's former secretary of state, expressed doubts any troop surge would be effective, noting U.S. forces already are overextended. "The American Army isn't large enough to secure Baghdad," said Colin Powell, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman during the 1991 Gulf War. Reid, whose party campaigned in the November congressional elections on changing course in Iraq, said he would be open only to a short-term increase. A period of 18 months to 24 months would be too long, he said. At least three other Democrats - Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Joseph Biden, D-Del., the incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said they did not support Reid's position on the additional troops.

Blair urges support for government

BASRA, Iraq - British Prime Minister Tony Blair took his Middle East peace tour to Iraq on Sunday, urging support for its fragile government and seeking to draw the violence-wracked country into his vision of a global battle against extremism. Blair told some of the 7,000 British troops serving in southern Iraq they were fighting on behalf of "people of tolerance and moderation" around the world. "This is real conflict, real battle, and it is a different kind of enemy - not fighting a state, but fighting a set of ideas and ideologies, a group of extremists who share the same perspectives," Blair said. "What we need to try to do is build an alliance of moderate people against the extreme." Blair insisted Iraq has made progress since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. The trip , his sixth to Iraq since the U.S.-led 2003 invasion, was not announced in advance for security reasons. The British leader also met with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and senior U.S. officials in Baghdad.

For memorial maker, too many crosses

There are just too many crosses for Stephen Sherrill to bear.

Sherrill, a carpenter, started making crosses in November 2003, one for each of the 340 U.S. soldiers who had died in Iraq. He hammered together pieces of wood, painted them white and brought them to the beach in Santa Barbara, Calif., where he and a few friends laid out a symbolic cemetery in the sand. Sherrill has monitored casualty statistics and steadily added more crosses, an average of 14 a week. Each Sunday, Veterans for Peace volunteers set up the crosses on the beach in the morning and take them down at night. It began as a protest but has evolved into a memorial. Now there are 2,937 crosses. They weigh a total of 1 1/2 tons and cover an acre of sand. Twice Sherrill has raised the sides of the trailer that carries them, but it is filled to capacity. So he has decided to stop at 3,000. "The size of this thing has really stretched us to the limits of our capabilities," Sherrill said. "Quite frankly, none of us ever dreamed that we would still be out there on the beach, nearly four years after this war started."

[Last modified December 19, 2006, 00:09:54]