French Engineer Abducted in Iraq

Gunmen abducted a French engineer in an upscale Baghdad neighborhood Monday, French and Iraqi officials said. He was the latest victim in a recent surge of kidnappings of Westerners.

The day also saw mounting tensions between the two Shiite Muslim political factions because of violence as parliamentary elections approach.

In Baghdad, the U.S. military reported that an American soldier was killed the day before when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle while he was on patrol. No other details were provided.

Engineer Bernard Planche was leaving for work at a water treatment facility when several men abducted him outside the gates of his home, Iraqi officials said. The French government released a statement saying Planche lived without proper security and had not followed the advice of the French Embassy in Baghdad, including the suggestion that he leave Iraq.

Five other Westerners have been abducted in the last 10 days. A German archeologist and four Christian aid workers -- an American, a Briton and two Canadians -- were kidnapped in two incidents.

Stating their demands on the Internet, the Swords of Righteousness Brigade, a previously unknown group, has vowed to kill the aid workers unless all Iraqi detainees are freed. The kidnappers of the German woman and her Iraqi driver, meanwhile, have demanded that Germany stop cooperating with the Iraqi government.

The wife of the British hostage has appeared on the Arabic-language television channel Al Jazeera, begging for the release of her 74-year-old husband, Norman Kember. Sunni Muslim political groups in Iraq also have called for the freeing of the abducted Westerners.

On Monday, the Muslim Assn. of Britain, a group that includes members of the militant organizations Hamas and Hezbollah, joined the chorus with a statement calling for “the immediate release of these four hostages and of all other Western civilians kidnapped in Iraq.”

Other politically motivated attacks threw fuel on an already bitter fight over who will govern the country for the next four years.

On Monday, attackers killed an election official in the city of Baqubah, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, Iraqi officials said. In the southern city of Samawah, gunmen ransacked the local campaign headquarters of former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, a secular Shiite candidate in the Dec. 15 elections.

“This does not help the political process,” said the mayor of Samawah, Ibrahim Mayali. “If we don’t like a certain party, then we have another way to express it, and that is the voting ballot.”

The masked attackers tore down posters and burned furniture in the Iraqi National List offices in Samawah, campaign officials said.

In Najaf the previous day, while visiting one of the holiest shrines in the country, Allawi was pelted with stones and shoes by a large mob. His campaign staff described the incident as an assassination attempt, though local officials denied it. Allawi suggested it was carried out by activists loyal to radical cleric Muqtada Sadr, whose deputies denied that assertion.

On Monday, Allawi greeted visiting sheiks from Basra who had gathered in the garden outside his headquarters in Baghdad. In two large tents, trays overflowing with food were laid out for the visitors. Shaking hands and listening to their concerns, Allawi appeared relaxed. However, spokesman Saad Yousif said the campaign had been forced to restrict the movement of their headline candidate.

“It’s lightning-quick visits” to neighborhoods, he said.

Times staff writer Zainab Hussein and special correspondent Asmaa Waguih contributed to this report.