Winks Blog

38 Seized In Mass Kidnappings in 2 Days, Dozens Killed

Good Morning,

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Parliament extended Iraq's state of emergency Monday as gunmen seized 14 employees from computer stores in downtown Baghdad in the second mass kidnapping in as many days.

Seven cars pulled up to the shops in front of Baghdad's Technical University, and gunmen wearing military-style uniforms surrounded the buildings, police Lt. Thair Mahmoud said. The attackers then forced the employees outside and into sport utility vehicles at gunpoint, he said.

On Sunday evening, 24 workers at a food factory in Baghdad were seized by gunmen who shot and wounded two workers who refused to climb into a refrigerated truck with their fellow captives. Seven bodies found late Sunday in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Dora were identified Monday as people who had been abducted in the raid on the food factory, Police Lt. Maitham Abdul Razzaq said.

Similar mass kidnappings in the past have been blamed on either Sunni extremists or Shiite death squads, who sort the captives by their sect and kill their targets.

Lawmakers from the Iraqi Islamic Party, a major Sunni political group, issued a statement accusing militias in the latest kidnappings, and urged the government to take "serious and urgent steps to disband these criminal organizations."

In other sectarian violence, dozens of bodies were found in and around Baghdad. At least 18 people also were killed in other attacks, including a noontime bomb blast in Baghdad's downtown Al-Nasir Square that killed four and wounded 13.

Have a nice day.

posted by Wink @ 9:21 AM