IRAQ: Gunmen wearing uniforms of Iraqi security forces kidnap 25 people from an office in central Baghdad in broad daylight

Gunmen wearing uniforms of Iraqi security forces kidnapped 25 people from an office in central Baghdad in broad daylight on Monday (July 31), police said. The gunmen pulled up in 15 four-wheel-drive vehicles and kidnapped employees and customers at the office on a street in Arasat, once a thriving commercial district that has seen many businesses close due to violence ravaging the country. Some witnesses said the offices were those of the Iraqi-American Chamber of Commerce, while others said they belonged to a commercial company. "Heavily-armed people with American weapons got off the cars," said eyewitness Basem al-Jubouri. "They confined the guards and the employees inside the building and after that they took them out with bound hands, leading them inside vehicles with weapons of the guards. They were also carrying bags, I think they are bags filled with money because there is an exchange bureau nearby. Yes, they were bags with money. We were watching from far because they did not allow us to come close." Police said among those kidnapped were the head of the chamber of commerce and 11 of his employees. U.S. President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki have agreed to send thousands more troop to tackle sectarian and insurgent violence in Baghdad, where criminal gangs and kidnappers feed off the instability. Maliki has already launched a crackdown but it has failed to ease communal violence which has raised fears of civil war. More and more neighbourhoods are being carved up along sectarian lines in the capital, once a melting pot of Iraq's sects and ethnic groups. And a growing number of shops and businesses have closed, including many on Arasat Road.

ITN Source | July 31, 2006

Tags:. .july. .hands. .security. .inside. .building