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Iraqi report on hostage release now called false

State television Iraqiya said most of the hostages seized at a Higher Education Ministry building on Tuesday had been freed in operations by security forces in Baghdad but authorities later said the report appeared to be false.
One Hundred Government Employees Kidnapped In Baghdad
A telephone is seen knocked to the floor Tuesday near a smear of blood at an Iraqi Higher Education Ministry building where government employees and visitors were kidnapped in Baghdad.Wathiq Khuzaie / Getty Images
/ Source: The Associated Press

Suspected Shiite militiamen dressed as Interior Ministry commandos stormed a Higher Education Ministry office Tuesday and kidnapped dozens of people after clearing the area under the guise of providing security for what they claimed would be a visit by the U.S. ambassador.

A broadcast report that most hostages were freed appeared to be false.

Witnesses and authorities said the gunmen raced through all four stories of the building, forced men and women into separate rooms, handcuffed the men and loaded them aboard about 20 pickup trucks.

Shortly afterward, authorities arrested five senior police officers in connection with the abductions — the police chief and five top subordinates in the Karradah district, the central Baghdad region where the kidnappers struck, Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Jalil Khalaf said.

There were varying estimates of the number of people kidnapped, but it appeared that at least 50 were seized — one of the largest mass abductions in Iraq. Authorities said as many as 20 were later released but said a broadcast report that most hostages were freed appeared to be false. The assault came on a day that saw at least 117 people die in the mounting disorder and violence gripping the country.

The abductions in broad daylight raised further questions about Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s commitment to wiping out the heavily armed Shiite militias of his prime political backers: the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, and the Sadrist Movement of radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

How many taken? Accounts differ
Iraqi officials gave wildly differing accounts of how many people were abducted in the raid on the Ministry of Higher Education office that handles academic grants and exchanges. Figures ranged from as many as 150 to as few as 45.

By late Tuesday the top estimate, given by Higher Education Minister Abed Theyab, appeared to have been inflated. Both the Interior and Defense ministries issued statements declaring that no more than 50 people were abducted and that as many as 20 victims had been released. But the lower figure included only employees known to have been at work in the building and did not count an unknown number of people in the offices on business.

A policeman stands guard outside the compound of the Higher Education Ministry in Baghdad
A policeman stands guard outside the compound of the Higher Education Ministry in Baghdad November 14, 2006. Gunmen wearing Iraqi police commando uniforms kidnapped as many as 100 men from a Higher Education Ministry building in central Baghdad on Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the ministry said. She said gunmen arrived in new pick-up vehicles and stormed the ministry's Research Directorate building in Karrada, a religiously mixed neighbourhood. REUTERS/Mahmoud Raouf Mahmoud (IRAQ)Mahmoud Raouf Mahmoud / X02013

Even at 50, the mass abduction would be the equal of two past kidnappings in which at least 50 victims were spirited away by gunmen.

Tuesday’s kidnapping was believed to have been in retribution for the abduction three days earlier of 50 Shiite passengers who were snatched off minibuses by Sunni gunmen at a fake checkpoint along the highway near Latifiyah, about 20 miles south of Baghdad. The gunmen killed 10 passengers before making away with their captives.

Although the kidnappers Tuesday were believed to be Shiites, it was unclear whether their hostages were mostly Sunni.

Alaa Makki, head of parliament’s education committee, said the gunmen had a list of names of those to take. Those kidnapped included the office’s deputy general directors, employees and visitors, he said.

Sunnis condemn act as ‘political farce’
The Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest Sunni Muslim group in the country, called the kidnapping “not only a crime but a major political farce.”

“How can 50 new vehicles move around in ... the area most heavily controlled by security agencies in the middle of the day?” the party said in a statement.

The facility appeared to be an easy target. Police and witnesses said the gunmen, who they claimed numbered about 80, had closed off streets surrounding the ministry. Four guards put up no resistance and were unharmed, police spokesman Maj. Mahir Hamad said.

Makki said the gunmen claimed to be helping the government’s anti-corruption body check on security ahead of a planned visit by U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad.

“It was a quick operation. It took about 10 to 15 minutes,” Theyab told parliament of the mass abduction. “It was a four-story building and the gunmen went to the four stories.” He said the armed men had at least 20 vehicles.

Captors wore police uniforms
A female professor who was visiting the ministry at the time of the attacks said the gunmen, some of them masked, wore blue camouflage uniforms of the type worn by police commandos. Illegal groups, including Shiite militias who have widely infiltrated the police force, are known to wear stolen or fake police and army uniforms.

The abductions follow a series of attacks on Iraqi academics that has prompted thousands of professors and researchers to flee to neighboring countries.

Recent weeks have seen a university dean and prominent Sunni geologist murdered, bringing the death toll among educators to at least 155 since the war began. The academics apparently were singled out for their relatively high public stature, vulnerability and views on controversial issues in a climate of deepening Islamic fundamentalism.

After Tuesday’s attack, Theyab ordered university classes suspended, complaining that the government had ignored his calls for greater security. He later rescinded the order when the Interior and Defense ministries promised increased patrols.

Al-Maliki says kidnap ‘not terrorism’
In his sole public comments on the kidnapping, al-Maliki said the kidnapping was the result of rivalries among armed groups sponsored by different political factions.

"What is happening is not terrorism, but the result of disagreements and conflict between militias belonging to this side or that," al-Maliki said in televised remarks during a meeting with President Jalal Talabani.

Ali al-Adib, a Shiite lawmaker, demanded U.S. troops be held responsible for allowing the kidnappings to occur.

"There is a political goal behind this grave action," al-Adib said.

A spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq said American troops were ready to help in the hunt for the kidnappers.

"If the reports are true, than this is a terrible crime and we will support all efforts by the Iraqi government to bring these criminals to justice," Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said.

Other events Tuesday
The abductions came just hours after a U.S. assault on the northwest Baghdad Shiite district of Shula that drew strong condemnation from al-Adib and other Shiite members of parliament. Shula and Sadr City are strongholds of radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, sponsor of one of Iraq's most powerful and feared militias, the Mahdi Army.

They also follow a meeting in Baghdad at which Gen. John Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command, confronted al-Maliki over how Iraqi forces would halt the raging violence.

In other violence Tuesday:

  • Police and medical workers said at least 31 Iraqis were killed in overnight clashes in the western city of Ramadi, where U.S. ground troops and warplanes have conducted a series of operations over recent days targeting Sunni insurgents. U.S. forces had no immediate comment.
  • Assailants also killed seven passengers and wounded two others aboard a minivan ambushed Tuesday near Mandali along the Iranian border, 60 miles east of Baghdad, the Diyala provincial police spokesman's office said.
  • Also in Diyala, two policemen were killed and seven wounded when their patrol was attacked at about 8:30 a.m. in a village just outside Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, the provincial police spokesman said.
  • Three insurgents were blown apart while attempting to plant a roadside bomb Monday night in a southern suburb of Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, police Brig. Abdul-Karim Ahmed Khalaf said.
  • The U.S. military, meanwhile, said an air strike killed three insurgents suspected of being part of a car bomb making ring in Youssifiyah, 12 miles south of Baghdad.