BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms burst into Red Crescent offices
on Sunday and kidnapped more than two dozen people at the humanitarian
organization in the latest sign of the country's growing lawlessness.
Iraqi translator for US forces Omar
Satar Hussein opens the door of an armored US Humvee, west of the restive
city of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, 02 December 2006. [AFP]
|
British Prime Minister
Tony Blair, in Iraq on his sixth visit since the 2003 invasion, appealed for
international support for Iraq's fragile government, saying the bloodshed was
being carried out "by the very forces worldwide who are trying to prevent
moderation."
Blair and his Iraqi counterpart, Nouri al-Maliki, discussed preparations by
British military units in Basra, the main city in southern Iraq, to turn over
security to Iraqi forces. Britain expects to withdraw several thousand troops
from Iraq next year, despite concerns that Iraqi forces are not ready to keep
order on their own.
"Our task - ours, the Americans, the whole of the coalition, the
international community and the Iraqis themselves - is to make sure that
the forces of terrorism don't defeat the will of the people to have a
democracy," Blair said.
In the latest violence, gunmen in five pickup trucks pulled up at the office
of the Iraqi Red Crescent in downtown Baghdad and abducted 25 employees, police
said. A Red Crescent official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of
safety concerns, said the gunmen left women behind.
Pierre Kraehenbuehl, director of operations of the International Committee of
the Red Cross, said in Geneva that seven abductees were released. The Dutch
Foreign Ministry said three Iraqi security guards at its embassy building in
Baghdad ¡ª adjacent to the Red Crescent offices - were also kidnapped, but
were later released.
The Red Crescent, which is part of the international Red Cross movement, has
around 1,000 staff and some 200,000 volunteers in Iraq. It works closely with
the International Committee of the Red Cross, which visits detainees and tries
to provide food, water and medicine to Iraqis.
"We don't know who they are. We don't know why they did this," said Antonella
Notari, a Red Cross spokeswoman in Geneva.
She also said the organization was in contact with the Iraqi Interior
Ministry, which denied any involvement and had assured that they were searching
for the abductees.
Mazin Abdellaha, secretary-general of the Iraqi Red Crescent, appealed to the
kidnappers to release the captives.
"They represent a humanitarian agency that works for the general good, and
this agency helps all people regardless of their sect or ethnicity," Abdellaha
said.
At least half a dozen mass kidnappings have been carried out in the Iraqi
capital this year, possibly by armed groups linked to the sectarian conflict
between Sunnis and Shiites.
The abduction comes just days after the organization's vice president, Dr.
Jamal al-Karbouli, said American forces represented a greater danger to its work
than insurgents.
"The insurgents, they are Iraqis, a lot of them are Iraqis, and they respect
the Iraqis. And they respect our (the Red Crescent's) identity, which is
neutrality," al-Karbouli said Friday.
Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a US military spokesman in Baghdad, said in
response that the US-led coalition forces "strive to ensure they are respectful
when they conduct interaction with the local population."
On Thursday, gunmen in military uniforms kidnapped dozens of people in
central Baghdad, police said. The attackers drove up to the busy Sanak area in
about 10 sport utility vehicles and began rounding up shop owners and
bystanders. Police said 50 to 70 people were abducted, but at least two dozen
were later released.
On Sunday, the US military said a roadside bomb killed three American
soldiers and injured a fourth serviceman north of Baghdad. The soldiers were
clearing a route so another unit could move through the area on Saturday, the
military said in a statement.
The toll raised to 57 the number of Americans killed in Iraq in December. At
least 2,945 members of the US military have died since the U.S.-led invasion in
March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
British and Iraqi troops in Basra are conducting a
neighborhood-by-neighborhood sweep aimed at rooting out weapons and militants
and launching reconstruction projects. Its completion in the new year will
likely trigger an announcement that Britain is slashing its troop numbers.
Britain has some 7,000 troops in Iraq, most based around the city of Basra in
the south - the largest commitment of any country after the United States.
More than 120 British personnel have died in the country since the U.S.-led
invasion in 2003 that ousted Saddam Hussein.
"The operation there for the Iraqi forces to take control of security of the
city is going well," Blair said.
Late on Sunday afternoon, Blair flew to Basra to visit some of the troops
stationed there.
"Our country and other countries like it are having to rediscover what it
means to fight for what you believe in," Blair told the soldiers.
"You are not fighting a state, but fighting a set of ideas and ideologies, a
group of extremists who share the same perspective," he said.
Among those killed in violence were two policeman, an Iraqi soldier and a
municipal official in Baghdad; and a police officer in Kut, southeast of the
capital.