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Up to 150 kidnapped from Baghdad institute
MSNBC
November 14, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen wearing Iraqi police commando uniforms kidnapped up to 150 staff and visitors in a lightning raid on a government research institute in downtown Baghdad on Tuesday, the largest mass abduction since the start of the U.S. occupation.

Iraq's higher education minister immediately ordered all universities closed until security improvements are made, saying he was "not ready to see more professors get killed."

"I have only one choice which is to suspend classes at universities. We have no other choice," Abed Theyab said in an address to parliament.

Alaa Makki, head of the parliament's education committee, interrupted a legislative session to say that between 100 and 150 people, both Shiites and Sunnis, had been abducted in the 9:30 a.m. raid.

He urged the prime minister and ministers of interior and defense to respond rapidly to what he called a "national catastrophe."

The kidnapping is the largest of any group since about 50 people taken from the offices of a private security company in March. Their fate remains unknown.

'Quick operation'
"It was quick operation. It took about 10 to 15 minutes," Theyab said. "It was a four-story building and the gunmen went to the four stories."

Makki said the gunmen had a list of names of those to be taken and claimed to be on a mission from the government's anti-corruption body. Those kidnapped included the institute's deputy general directors, employees, and visitors, he said.

Police and witnesses said about 80 gunmen were involved in the raid on the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Scholarships and Cultural Relations Directorate in the downtown Karradah district. The institute is responsible for granting scholarships to Iraqi professors and students wishing to study abroad.

Police spokesman Maj. Mahir Hamad said the entire operation took about 20 minutes and began with gunmen closing off surrounding streets. Four guards at the institute put up no resistance and were unharmed, he said.

Witnesses including a female professor visiting at the time said the gunmen forced men and women into separate rooms, handcuffed the men, and loaded them aboard about pickup trucks. She said the gunmen, some of them masked, wore blue camouflage uniforms of the type worn by police commandos.

Shiite militias and other illegal groups are known to wear stolen or fake police and army uniforms.

Academics targeted
The abductions were the most brazen attack yet on Iraqi academics, who have often been targeted by insurgents. Recent weeks have seen a university dean and prominent Sunni geologist murdered, bringing the death toll among educators to at least 155 since the war began.

Thousands of professors and researchers have fled to neighboring countries to escape the lawlessness and sectarian strife, robbing the country of its brain trust.

The academics apparently were singled out for their relatively high public stature, vulnerability and known views on controversial issues in a climate of deepening Islamic fundamentalism.

Ali al-Adib, a Shiite lawmaker, said U.S. troops are to blame for the security lapse.

"There is a political goal behind this grave action," he said.

A spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq said American troops were ready to help hunt for the kidnappers.

"If the reports are true, then this is a terrible crime, and we will support all efforts by the Iraqi government to bring these criminals to justice," Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said.

The abductions came just hours after a U.S. assault on the northwest Baghdad Shiite district of Shula that drew strong condemnation from al-Adib and other Shiite members of parliament. Shula is a stronghold of radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, sponsor of one of Iraq's most powerful and feared militias, the Mahdi Army.

It also came a day after Gen. John Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command, confronted Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki over how Iraqi forces would halt the raging violence.

In other violence Tuesday, police and medical workers said at least 20 Iraqis were killed in clashes in the western city of Ramadi, where U.S. ground troops and warplanes have conducted a series of operations over recent days targeting Sunni insurgents. U.S. forces had no immediate comment.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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