The uniformed kidnappers of Baghdad

[NNN0LHI]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6756425.stm

The search is continuing for a British computer expert and his four bodyguards who were seized last month from a building belonging to the Iraqi finance ministry by men in police uniform. snip

It is what keeps most Westerners inside the heavily fortified Green Zone. snip

But then you do not have to go far to bump into tragedy in Baghdad.

One of my Iraqi colleagues at the BBC bureau told us about his cousin and his cousin's neighbour, both Sunnis. A week ago, policemen came to their homes and arrested them.

They were terrified when, as they were led away, they saw Mehdi Army fighters with the police, apparently directing operations. The neighbour has now been found dead, bound and shot in the back of the head. The cousin is still missing.

One of our drivers told me about a friend - another Sunni - snatched while waiting at the bus station in Baghdad. His kidnappers were policemen.

They tortured him for three days, using an electric drill to make holes in the muscles of both legs. They left him for dead atop a pile of rubbish in the suburb of Mansur.

[Dark]

1. "using an electric drill to make holes in the muscles of both legs"

:cry: