BAGHDAD, July 9 (Xinhuanet) -- Head of Iraq's Karate Union has been kidnapped in a rebel area, south of Baghdad, police said on Saturday.

    Gunmen disguised in police uniform abducted Ali Shaker on Thursday afternoon while he was travelling in his car near the town of Latifiyah, some 30 kms south of Baghdad, a police source in Babil province said.

    Shaker was heading home in Hilla city, some 100 kms south of Bgahdad, when he was stopped on a fake checkpoint and took him away after they forced his mother to leave the car, the source said.

    Insurgents have frequently attacked employees in the Iraqi Shiite-dominated government in a bid to cripple it since its formation in late April. Enditem