Gunmen Kidnap 24 Workers in Iraq
29/03/2006| IslamWeb
Three groups of gunmen kidnapped at least 24 Iraqis working at a currency exchange and two electronics stores in Baghdad yesterday, the interior ministry said. South of the capital, a car bomb exploded as police exchanged fire with two suicide bombers at a police station, wounding at least a dozen people.
The attacks follow two days of violence in Iraq that left at least 151 dead, including 16 people killed on Sunday in a military assault on what Iraqis claim was a mosque.
Multi-party talks on forming a new government resumed yesterday after Shi'ite politicians halted negotiations in response to the assault.
The abductions in Baghdad happened separately but within the same half-hour period, the ministry said.
Fifteen gunmen wearing military uniforms but arriving in civilian cars stormed the Moussa Bin Nasir Exchange Co in the southwest Harthiyah neighbourhood at about 1pm, kidnapping six people and stealing tens of thousands of dollars, police said.
At around the same time, seven gunmen in civilian clothes ran into a Daewoo International electronics store in the downtown Karradah district and snatched three employees, including the store manager, police said.
A half hour later, masked gunmen in military uniforms and helmets stormed a different branch of the same company in eastern Baghdad, abducting 15 employees, Lt Col Falah Al Mohammedawi said. They also arrived in civilian cars.
The mass kidnappings came a day after gunmen abducted 16 employees of an Iraqi trading company in Baghdad's upscale western neighbourhood of Mansour. Those kidnappers also wore uniforms and masks when they entered the headquarters of the Saeed Import and Export Co. Police said they went through papers and computer files before taking away their captives.
Rafidh Salim Saleh, a worker at Saeed who avoided capture, said the company had been in Iraq more than 30 years and was involved with an electricity project in Youssifiyah, 20km south of Baghdad. He said a motive for the abductions was not known.
In yesterday's car bomb explosion, two men drove up to the police station in Iskandariyah and started firing machine guns at police, who fired back, hitting one of the assailants before the car blew up, police official said.
PHOTO CAPTION