Five Britons 'seized in Baghdad'

[bemildred]

Source: BBC

Five Britons are reported to have been kidnapped from the Iraqi finance ministry in Baghdad.

They included four bodyguards and a finance expert. Earlier reports said the expert was German.

Witnesses and sources told the BBC that the kidnappers wore police uniforms and arrived in up to 40 police vehicles.

"We are aware of reports that a group of Westerners have been kidnapped. We are urgently looking into them," the UK foreign office said.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6700319.stm

[FatDave]

1. I'm sure the uniforms and vehicles were stolen

Right? Wasn't that the story the last time? :sarcasm:

[Barrett808]

2. Every week brings a new disaster...

...On Bush's descent into the abyss.

[alcibiades_mystery]

3. Were they out for a stroll in one of the fabulous open air markets?

I hear sunset on the Tigris viewed from the sidewalk cafes of Rashid Street is simply divine...

:eyes:

[leftchick]

4. first they are "lecturers"

now they are body guards? There is something fishy about this story.

[acmavm]

5. Anybody know if this was in the Green Zone?

[maddezmom]

6. it was outside the green zone

:hi:

[acmavm]

7. Thanks!

[MGKrebs]

8. 40 vehicles? If that's true, we got major problems.

Acquisition, staging, recruitment, planning, preparation, real-time intelligence, communication, coordination, successful escape. All in secret. That is not a small ad-hoc "cell" of free-lancers.

If it's outside the government, it means virtually unlimited resources are available to them, and if it's inside the government, it's even worse.

[maddezmom]

9. CNNI reported the Iraqi Interior Ministry says there was only 18 or 19

probably his guys

[maddezmom]

10. Gunmen Kidnap at least 3 Western Lecturers

Source: Reuters

GUNMEN KIDNAP AT LEAST THREE WESTERN LECTURERS FROM FINANCE MINISTRY BUILDING IN BAGHDAD - WITNESS

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L29588010.htm

---

Gunmen kidnap 3 Westerners in Baghdad - police

BAGHDAD, May 29 (Reuters) - Gunmen wearing police uniforms abducted at least three Western lecturers and several of their foreign bodyguards from a Finance Ministry building in central Baghdad on Tuesday, a witness told Reuters.

The witness, who did not want to be identified, said the lecturers, believed to be Americans, had been giving ministry personnel a lecture on organising electronic contracts in a Finance Ministry building in Palestine Street.

The gunmen, led by a police major, had entered the conference room shouting "Where are the foreigners, where are the foreigners?" she said.

A fourth lecturer escaped being abducted because he was sitting apart from his colleagues. The witness said the lecturers, employed by a U.S. organisation, had given at least 12 lectures at the ministry over the past year.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L29593935.htm

[Eugene]

11. Iraq has reached a new milestone.

Insurgents/militia have kidnapped foreigners and raided
ministries before, but raiding the ministry specifically
to grab Westerners is a significant escalation.

Nobody is safe anywhere in Baghdad.

Updated Reuters story: Three Westerners kidnapped in Baghdad - witness

[fasttense]

12. What exactly were they lecturing on?

"the lecturers, believed to be Americans, had been giving ministry personnel a lecture on organising electronic contracts."

That's a strange topic. Do you suppose them meant to spell organizing?

[maddezmom]

14. that's how the Brits spell it

:)

[Contrary1]

13. The gunmen were wearing police uniforms...

probably infiltrators in Bush's Iraqi police force. :eyes:

[maddezmom]

15. updated link: Four Germans kidnapped in Baghdad

Four Germans kidnapped in Baghdad 23 minutes ago



BAGHDAD (AFP) - Four Germans working for the Iraqi finance ministry were reported kidnapped in Baghdad on Tuesday by men wearing national police uniforms.

The men are computer science experts training civil servants at the ministry's information department on Palestine Street in the city centre when 40 police vehicles surrounded the building, he said.

"The ministry is checking the reports of the suspected kidnappings of German citizens in Iraq," a German foreign ministry spokesman in Berlin told AFP.

The four men were taken out at gunpoint and driven off by men wearing the new uniforms of the national police, a heavily-armed paramilitary unit under the interior ministry.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070529/wl_mideast_afp/iraqgermanyunrest_070529113111;_ylt=AoFUqF2hT_jtngi6ZQwNcz.aOrgF

[maddezmom]

16. London checking reports of 'westerners' kidnapped in Baghdad

London checking reports of 'westerners' kidnapped in Baghdad
AFP - 11 minutes agoLONDON (AFP) - Britain is urgently checking reports that a group of westerners, possibly including Britons, has been kidnapped in Baghdad, the Foreign Office said Tuesday.

"We're aware of reports that a group of western nationals has been taken in Baghdad," a spokesman told AFP, adding the situation was unclear, with reports speaking of Germans, Britons or Americans.

"We're urgently looking into the reports," he added.

The comment came after a security official in Baghdad told AFP that four Germans working for the Iraqi finance ministry were kidnapped by men wearing national police uniforms.

more:http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20070529/tuk-iraq-germany-unrest-b5b5cc4.html

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. Or they may be British

Five Britons 'seized in Baghdad'

Five Britons are reported to have been kidnapped from the Iraqi finance ministry in Baghdad.

They included four bodyguards and a finance expert, earlier reported to be German.
...
Some reports say the kidnappers were driving what appeared to be police vehicles and wearing police commando uniforms.

The missing security guards are all believed to have been working for the GardaWorld security agency. Their abducted client was thought to be advising the Iraqi finance ministry.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6700319.stm

[maddezmom]

18. Britain to hold emergency meeting on Iraq kidnap

Britain to hold emergency meeting on Iraq kidnap
More LONDON, May 29 (Reuters) - The British government's top-level emergency committee will meet on Tuesday to discuss the kidnap of several British nationals in Iraq, a government spokeswoman said.

The committee, known as COBRA, will be led by officials from the Foreign Office, which declined to confirm any details.

"Where we suspect British nationals have been abducted it would be normal to meet," a Foreign Office spokeswoman said, adding several government departments would be involved.


http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L29656663.htm

[maddezmom]

19. A Brazen Kidnapping in Baghdad

A Brazen Kidnapping in Baghdad
Tuesday, May. 29, 2007 By BOBBY GHOSH/BAGHDAD The kidnapping of a group of Western computer specialists and several of their bodyguards from a Finance Ministry office by an unidentified group of Iraqi insurgents on Tuesday is the most brazen such operation in Baghdad since the U.S. military's buildup, or "surge," strategy began earlier this year.

There has not yet been a formal statement from the Iraqi government or U.S. officials, but eyewitness reports say that a small number of Westerners were training ministry officials on the use of computers when the kidnappers hustled them away.

There are hundreds of foreign advisors working in various capacities for the Iraqi government. Many confine themselves to the Green Zone, the highly fortified Baghdad enclave that houses the U.S. embassy and many government offices. The computer experts were in a ministry building outside, in the Red Zone, as the rest of Baghdad is known.

Although no group has as yet claimed responsibility, first suspicion is bound to fall on the Mahdi Army, the dreaded Shi'ite militia; the snatch bore some of the group's hallmarks, including the use of police vehicles and uniforms. Iraq's minority Sunnis routinely complain that the Iraqi police force often acts as a front for Shi'ite militias, especially the Mahdi Army.

Reports of men in police uniform kidnapping or killing Sunnis are commonplace. The most spectacular of these attacks occurred last November, when scores of men in police commando uniforms — and driving vehicles with police markings — stormed into an office of the Ministry of Higher Education, kidnapping 150 people. Most were subsequently released, and the operation was attributed to a Mahdi Army warlord named Abu Dera'a. But many Iraqis believe the police was complicit in the kidnapping.

more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1625939,00.html?xid=rss-world

[maddezmom]

20. Five Britons kidnapped in Baghdad, UK says

Five Britons kidnapped in Baghdad, UK says

LONDON, May 29 (Reuters) - Five Britons were kidnapped in Baghdad on Tuesday, a Foreign Office spokesman said.

"I can confirm that a group of five British nationals were abducted this morning at 0850 UK time, which is 1150 local time, in an incident at the Finance Ministry in central Baghdad," the spokesman told Reuters.

"Officials from the British embassy in Baghdad are in urgent contact with the Iraqi authorities to establish the facts and to try to secure a swift resolution." (Reporting by Sophie Walker; editing by Adrian Croft; [e-mail] + 44 207 219 5380))

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HOC000022.htm