Egypt's Iraqi embassy secured
2005-07-03 12:00
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Baghdad - The new Egyptian ambassador to Iraq, Ihab al-Sharif, was kidnapped in Baghdad late on Saturday, just a month after taking up post, an embassy employee and the Iraqi interior ministry said.
Sharif had been named ambassador on June 1.
"I arrived this morning and I was shocked to learn that the ambassador had been kidnapped," said the employee on condition of anonymity.
Sharif was taken late Saturday from his home in Baghdad's upscale Mansur neighbourhood, an interior ministry source told AFP.
Police erected a tight security cordon around the embassy on Sunday and journalists were being kept 30m away, as additional security personnel arrived, an AFP correspondent on the scene reported.
Sharif was the first ambassador named by Egypt since the ouster of Saddam Hussein's regime by US-led troops in April 2003.
- AFP