Tuesday, November 14, 2006
UPDATE - 150 kidnapped, Sunnis taken
UPDATE
An Iraqi who said he saw dozens of people seized on Tuesday from a Baghdad government building said police stood by as gunmen checked identity cards to sort Sunnis from Shia and then drove off with Sunni men. The man, a Sunni himself is well known to a Reuters employee but did not want to be identified for fear of retribution. “They gathered them all in the pick-ups. At the same time, I saw two police patrols watching, doing nothing,” said the witness, who works at the office of delegations and cultural relations at the Higher Education Ministry.
Higher Education Minister Abd Dhiab, a member of a Sunni Arab party in government, told Iraqiya state television he had asked the Interior Ministry and Defence Ministry to provide more protection for his staff some time ago because he had information that they were vulnerable to attack. “As far as we know, this area is full of police and Defence Ministry checkpoints and we know police vehicles followed the kidnappers to a specific area and after that we don’t know what happened,” Dhiab said.
He said the gunmen, who were wearing police uniforms, claimed they were from the Interior Ministry. That ministry, which is controlled by the majority Shia, has repeatedly denied charges of links to Shia militias blamed by Sunni Arabs and Washington for operating death squads and kidnapping cells.
Higher Education Minister Abd Dhiab, a member of a Sunni Arab party in government, told Iraqiya state television he had asked the Interior Ministry and Defence Ministry to provide more protection for his staff some time ago because he had information that they were vulnerable to attack. “As far as we know, this area is full of police and Defence Ministry checkpoints and we know police vehicles followed the kidnappers to a specific area and after that we don’t know what happened,” Dhiab said.
He said the gunmen, who were wearing police uniforms, claimed they were from the Interior Ministry. That ministry, which is controlled by the majority Shia, has repeatedly denied charges of links to Shia militias blamed by Sunni Arabs and Washington for operating death squads and kidnapping cells.
