Gunmen abduct 150 people

BAGHDAD – Gunmen wearing Interior Ministry commando uniforms kidnapped up to 150 staff members from a government research institute in downtown Baghdad yesterday, the head of the parliamentary education committee said.

Alaa Makki interrupted a televised parliamentary session to say reports had been received that between 100 and 150 people, both Shi’ites and Sunnis, had been abducted in the raid at about 9:30 am (0630 GMT). He urged the prime minister and ministers of interior and defence to rapidly respond to what he called a “national catastrophe.”Police and eyewitnesses said gunmen closed off roads around the institute in the downtown Karradah district at about 9:30 am (0630 GMT), and loaded their handcuffed captives onto pickup trucks before driving away to an unknown destination.Police and medical workers said at least 20 Iraqis were killed in clashes early Tuesday in Ramadi, where US ground troops and warplanes have conducted a series of operations over recent days targeting Sunni insurgents.Ali al-Obaidi, a medic at Ramadi Hospital, said those killed were civilians who died in shelling by US tanks in the Dhubat neighbourhood.A police spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals by insurgents, said 20 people were killed, but gave no information about their identities or how they died.The US military said it had no updated information on Ramadi clashes.Insurgents have grown increasingly bold around Ramadi, which lies deep in the Sunni heartland west of Baghdad where tribal leaders were strong allies of former dictator Saddam Hussein.US forces said they used air-launched weapons on Saturday to destroy a building in the city that had been boobytrapped to explode upon entry.The military said there were no reports of any civilian casualties in that attack.In other violence, assailants killed seven passengers and wounded two others aboard a minivan ambushed Tuesday near Mandali on the Iranian border, 100 kilometres east of Baghdad, the Diyala provincial police spokesman’s office said.Nampa-APHe urged the prime minister and ministers of interior and defence to rapidly respond to what he called a “national catastrophe.”Police and eyewitnesses said gunmen closed off roads around the institute in the downtown Karradah district at about 9:30 am (0630 GMT), and loaded their handcuffed captives onto pickup trucks before driving away to an unknown destination.Police and medical workers said at least 20 Iraqis were killed in clashes early Tuesday in Ramadi, where US ground troops and warplanes have conducted a series of operations over recent days targeting Sunni insurgents.Ali al-Obaidi, a medic at Ramadi Hospital, said those killed were civilians who died in shelling by US tanks in the Dhubat neighbourhood.A police spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals by insurgents, said 20 people were killed, but gave no information about their identities or how they died.The US military said it had no updated information on Ramadi clashes.Insurgents have grown increasingly bold around Ramadi, which lies deep in the Sunni heartland west of Baghdad where tribal leaders were strong allies of former dictator Saddam Hussein.US forces said they used air-launched weapons on Saturday to destroy a building in the city that had been boobytrapped to explode upon entry.The military said there were no reports of any civilian casualties in that attack.In other violence, assailants killed seven passengers and wounded two others aboard a minivan ambushed Tuesday near Mandali on the Iranian border, 100 kilometres east of Baghdad, the Diyala provincial police spokesman’s office said.Nampa-AP