American kidnapped in Baghdad

2004-11-01 18:52

Baghdad - Two Arab nationals, a US citizen and an Asian were kidnapped on Monday in Baghdad, said an interior ministry spokesperson.

"An group of armed men kidnapped an American, an Asian - maybe Nepalese or Sri Lankan - and two Arabs from their offices in Mansour," said colonel Adnan Abdul Rahman.

British engineer Kenneth Bigley and two of his American colleagues were kidnapped from their offices in the same neighbourhood in mid September and were all later beheaded by their captors.

The men kisnapped on Monday worked for the Saudi Arabian Trading and Contracting Company, said a lawyer for the company, who also confirmed the kidnappings.

Earlier Iraqi police said they worked for the Saudi Arabian Investment Company.

An Iraqi policeman, Wissam Sarih, said that the armed men barged into the company's offices in the Mutanabi area of Mansour at about 17:35 (14:35 GMT) and clashed with guards before escaping with the kidnapped men.

"One of the attackers and a guard was killed," he said.

Soft targets US and Iraqi forces cordoned off the scene of the attack and the body of the guard was seen on the street, said an AFP correspondent at the scene.

"They are soft targets and unfortunately this sort of thing will get worse," said an official at Iraq's foreign ministry.

The captors had demanded that women prisoners be released from US-run prisons in Iraq.

The decapitated body of a 24-year-old Japanese tourist was found on a Baghdad street on Saturday, days after he was kidnapped by a militant group that demanded that Tokyo pull out its troops from Iraq.

Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi warned on Sunday that insurgents have been targeting foreigners as a way of putting pressure on their governments to recognise them as "legitimate political actors." More than 30 hostages have been killed by their captors in Iraq since a wave of kidnappings in April that has seen about 150 foreigners seized.

- AFP