Gunmen kidnap nearly 150 people from Baghdad higher education office

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Gunmen dressed as police commandos kidnapped scores of staff and visitors in a lightning raid on an education ministry office Tuesday in one of the biggest mass abductions since the start of the U.S.-led occupation. Five senior police officers -- including the neighborhood police chief -- were arrested, the government said.

Alaa Makki, head of parliament's education committee, interrupted the legislative session Tuesday morning to say that between 100 and 150 people, both Shiites and Sunnis, had been abducted in the 9:30 a.m. raid at the ministry offices, calling the kidnapping a "national catastrophe."

Abed Theyab, the higher education minister, told parliament he had repeatedly petitioned for more university security from the ministries of Defense and Interior, who command the police, but had received none.

He ordered all universities closed, saying he was "not ready to see more professors get killed," but later rescinded the directive after the government promised to increase security at Higher Education Ministry and university buildings.

By late Tuesday, government officials were giving wildly varying figures for the number abducted, with the higher education ministry saying about 130 were missing and the prime minister's office saying about 50 were taken and 20 of them had been released.

"It was a 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." He said the gunmen had at least 20 vehicles.

Makki said the gunmen had a list of names of those to take, and claimed to be helping the government's anti-corruption body check on security ahead of a planned visit by the U.S. ambassador. Those kidnapped included the office's deputy general directors, employees, and visitors, he said.

Police and witnesses said the gunmen, who numbered about 80, had closed off streets surrounding the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Scholarships and Cultural Relations Directorate. The institute is responsible for granting scholarships to Iraqi professors and students wishing to study abroad.

Maj. Gen. Jalil Khalaf, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said those arrested included the police chief for the central Baghdad neighborhood of Karradah, the commander of the police brigade in charge of the area and three other officers.

Police and witnesses said the gunmen, who numbered about 80, had closed off streets surrounding the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Scholarships and Cultural Relations Directorate. The institute is responsible for granting scholarships to Iraqi professors and students wishing to study abroad.

The facility appeared to be an easy target for the kidnappers, whose motives remain unknown but may be linked to Iraq's sectarian violence. Police spokesman Maj. Mahir Hamad said four guards put up no resistance and were unharmed.

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

Illegal groups, including Shiite militias who have widely infiltrated the police force, are known to wear stolen or fake police and army uniforms.

The mass kidnapping is among the largest since the start of the U.S. occupation in 2003, though abductions have been increasing in scale in recent weeks, with about 50 people kidnapped near Latifiyah on Saturday.

The abductions come amid a series of attacks on Iraqi academics that has prompted thousands of professors and researchers to flee to neighboring countries.

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. 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, demanded U.S. troops be held responsible for allowing the kidnapping to occur, saying there was "a political goal behind this grave action."

The Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest Sunni Muslim group in the country, called the kidnapping "not only a crime but a major political farce."

"How can 50 new vehicles move around in ... the area most heavily controlled by security agencies in the middle of the day~" the party said in a statement.

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

"If the reports are true, than 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 and Sadr City are strongholds of radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, sponsor of one of Iraq's most powerful and feared militias, the Mahdi Army.

The kidnapping 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 Tuesday's worst violence, 21 people were killed and 25 injured in a car bombing targeting traffic along a highway linking downtown with the Shiite slum of Sadr City, police Lt. Ali Muhssin said.

Mohammed Ali, a 30-year-old clothes merchant, had closed his shop early and was heading home when the bomb blast threw him from his motorcycle.

"I could see people on fire. We tried to rescue some women from a minibus, but they died in our arms," Ali said.

In other violence Tuesday, police and medical workers said at least 31 Iraqis were killed in overnight 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.