Iraqi police arrest journos
2004-08-11 19:09
Tehran - Iraqi police arrested three journalists of the Iranian state news agency IRNA on Monday and confiscated their equipment, a senior editor at the agency told AFP here on Wednesday.
Baghdad bureau chief Mostafa Darban and two Iraqi staff, Mohammed Khafaji and Mohsen Madani, "were arrested and we don't know what has happened to a fourth" journalist at the office, said international news editor Hassan Lavasani.
"We don't know where they were taken and we don't know why they were arrested, but intensive searches are taking place," he said.
"The office equipment was taken away by police."
Kidnappings
Earlier, senior IRNA employees said Darban and up to three other employees had been kidnapped.
Iraqi police, quoted by IRNA, said they were aware of the "arrests" but did not elaborate on who carried them out, amid cooling ties between Baghdad and Tehran due to charges of Iranian interference in the war-torn country.
The agency's office in Baghdad has been out of telephone contact with Tehran since Monday, it said, adding that the Iranian embassy was following the case.
The incident follows the kidnapping of Iranian diplomat Fereydoun Jahani, who went missing on August 4 on the road leading from Baghdad to Karbala, in central Iraq, where Tehran had just opened a consulate.