Latest news: At least 15 hostages released from
Baghdad mass kidnapping
BEIJING, Nov. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Gunmen wearing Iraqi
police commando uniforms stepped up pressure on the country's educational system
Tuesday by kidnapping up to 150 staff members from a government research
institute in downtown Baghdad, according to the head of the parliamentary
education committee.
Alaa Makki interrupted a parliamentary session
to announce between 100 and 150 people, both Shiites and Sunnis, had been
abducted in the 9:30 a.m. raid. He urged the prime minister and ministers of
interior and defense to rapidly respond to what he called a "national
catastrophe." Makki added that he will close universities until security
improves.
Included in the kidnapping were the institute's
deputy general directors, employees, and visitors, Makki said.
The abductions are the latest in a series of
killings and other attacks on Iraqi academics that are robbing Iraq of its brain
trust and prompting thousands of professors and researchers to flee to
neighboring countries.
A university dean and prominent Sunni geologist were
murdered recently, bringing the death toll among educators to at least 155 since
the beginning of the war. It appears academics have been targeted because
of their relatively high public stature, vulnerability and known views on
controversial issues in a climate of deepening Islamic fundamentalism.
Police and witnesses said the raid began when gunmen
closed roads around the institute in the downtown Karradah district.
Police spokesman Maj. Mahir Hamad said the entire
operation took about 20 minutes. Four guards at the institute put up no
resistance and were unharmed, he said.
Makki said the gunmen had a list of names and claimed
to be on a mission from the government's anti-corruption body.
A female professor visiting at the time of the
kidnappings said the gunmen forced men and women into separate rooms, handcuffed
the men, and loaded them aboard about six pickup trucks. She said the gunmen,
some of them masked, wore blue camouflage uniforms of the type worn by police
commandos.
A Shiite lawmaker said there was little question
Tuesday's incident was a mass kidnapping and blamed U.S. troops for the
security lapse.
"The detention of 150 people from a government
institution without informing the higher education minister ... means this is an
abduction operation," Ali al-Adib said. "There is a political goal behind this
grave action."
(Agencies)
Gunmen kidnap
up to 100 employees from gov't building
BAGHDAD, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Gunmen kidnapped some
100 people working for the Higher Education Ministry in Baghdad on Tuesday, the
state-run television reported.
Gunmen wearing Iraqi police commando uniform stormed
the ministry's Research Directorate building in the Nidhal Street in Karradah
district, kidnapping more than 100 male employees, the television said.
Thiyab al-Ajili, minister of the ministry, also
confirmed the incident.
Women employees were separated from the men and
locked in a room after having their mobile phones confiscated by the gunmen, the
report said.
Earlier, an Interior Ministry source said that up to
25 employees were kidnapped from the building.
Gunmen kidnap 25 gov't employees in Baghdad
BAGHDAD, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Gunmen in 20 sports
utility vehicles stormed a government building in Baghdad and kidnapped up to 25
employees on Tuesday, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.
"Gunmen wearing Iraqi police commando uniform in 20
SUVs stormed the Research Department of the Higher Education Ministry in the
al-Nidhal Street in Karradah district, kidnapping up to 25 employees," the
source said on condition of anonymity.
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A US helicopter flies over the blast site in
central Baghdad, capital of Iraq, Nov.13, 2006. (Xinhua
Photo)
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Heavy smoke rises from the blast site in central
Baghdad, capital of Iraq, Nov.13, 2006.(Xinhua Photo)
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