UNIFORMED MEN KIDNAP DOZENS IN IRAQI CAPITAL

In a mass kidnapping audacious even by Iraq war standards, dozens of assailants wearing police commando uniforms stormed a Higher Education Ministry building Tuesday morning, abducted scores of people and fled in more than 30 trucks and armored sport utility vehicles, witnesses said.

The men, armed with AK-47s and U.S.-made grenade launchers, went through the building room by room, randomly detaining people along the way.

They made a coordinated getaway by cordoning off Nidal Street, only a few blocks from City Hall, witnesses said. Many of their trucks lacked license plates but had high-caliber machine guns in their beds.

Witnesses gave various estimates of the number of kidnapping victims, but most said at least 70 were taken.

This morning, however, government spokesman Ali Dabbagh disputed that figure. He said a total of 39 were kidnapped: five visitors to the office, 16 staff and 18 guards.

He confirmed earlier reports that 20 were released by Tuesday evening and said 17 more were freed overnight. The whereabouts of two remained unknown, and he did not say who they were.

Dabbagh said the Interior Ministry had been arresting suspects in various locations, leading to freedom for some of the abductees. He said the U.S. military also was involved in the investigation.

“We don’t feel that the kidnappers are police but we do feel that there may have been neglect. We know that in the MOI [Ministry of Interior] there are people who are corrupt who facilitate some of these operations. We do think that some of these kidnappers are criminal gangs.”

Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Abdul Kareem Khalaf said earlier that 20 of the captives, among them Sunni Arab Muslims, Shiite Muslims and Christians, were hastily freed because of checkpoints set up by the Interior Ministry.

“We closed more than 20 neighborhoods in east Baghdad and cut them off. They had to throw some of the people out of their cars so they wouldn’t get caught,” Khalaf said.

The operation, which witnesses said took just minutes, was among the largest kidnappings in a city where abductions for financial or sectarian reasons have become routine.

In some cases, victims have been released after a ransom was paid; others have yet to be found. But after many incidents, handcuffed bodies bearing signs of torture have been discovered on Baghdad’s streets.

Kidnappings by men wearing police uniforms have become among the most dreaded because relatively few of those abducted have returned alive.

Khalaf said five senior police officials were detained and interrogated after the kidnappings, including the police chief who was in charge of the Karada neighborhood in southeast Baghdad where the incident took place.

Khalaf declined to say whether it was believed that the police officials were directly involved, but said that they were at least negligent for allowing the abductions to occur under their watch.

“They could have reported to us that this raid took place,” Khalaf said. “These people who raided that building are not policemen at all, they are just criminals.”

A guard stationed at a small hospital behind the education building said the gunmen appeared to be highly organized.

“They came from there, waving like they were official,” said the guard, who identified himself as Abu Hassan, pointing to the end of an alleyway behind the building.

Those taken included 17 security guards at the facility, the Scholarship and Cultural Relations Directorate of the Higher Education and Scientific Research Ministry. Also abducted were ministry employees and visitors who had business in the building.

The raiders separated men from women, locking the men together in a daisy chain with plastic cuffs and loading them into vehicles at gunpoint.

No women appear to have been taken hostage, but “they beat some of the women,” said a witness who gave his name as Abu Aya. He said one of the captives, a cafeteria worker, was his cousin. “One woman’s eye was bloody.”

The kidnappers drove off amid a crackle of gunfire, said Basil Ismael Khateeb, a spokesman for the Higher Education Ministry. “The attackers drove ministry vehicles and opened fire in the air to clear the way for them just like official convoys,” he said.

According to three abductees who were later released, the kidnappers “asked the detainees about their names and their residential areas while beating them on their heads,” Khateeb said.

Interior Ministry spokesman Khalaf declined to say whether he thought a Shiite militia group was involved, saying that information could jeopardize the investigation.

The incident was similar to a raid on a Sunni Arab-owned meatpacking plant in Baghdad more than a month ago in which police commandos kidnapped at least 22 workers, several of whom were found dead days later. That raid sparked an investigation by the U.S. Army and moved Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki to suspend an entire police unit and order retraining.

U.S. forces who investigated that kidnapping blamed Shiite militiamen, who are believed to have infiltrated Interior Ministry police units by the thousands and are suspected of carrying out sectarian killings and kidnappings against Sunni Arabs during the last 18 months.

Among the largest kidnappings was one in June in which gunmen in camouflage uniforms seized more than 50 bystanders at a bus stop area in downtown Baghdad, handcuffing the men and hauling them away in police trucks.

Despite pledges to crack down on Shiite paramilitary forces, Maliki, a Shiite, has been accused by frustrated U.S. military commanders of dragging his feet. Partners in Maliki’s fragile ruling coalition include politicians tied to the Al Mahdi army and the Badr Brigade, two of the most influential Shiite militias believed to be operating within the police forces. Any strong moves against them could further destabilize the government, U.S. and Iraqi officials have said.

At the higher education building, Nour Hussein, 23, a janitor, said the gunmen were efficient in lining up the detainees.

“Men wearing police commando uniforms entered the building and took our mobile phones,” Hussein said. “At the entrance, they were hitting the guards very hard with their hands. They took all of the employees and left some of the women after locking them in a room. They hit employees, visitors and guards.”

The mass kidnapping followed a series of police attacks on the education facility during the last two months, witnesses said. Bullet holes and shattered windows mar the building. Inside, there is more evidence of violence, including bullet holes, overturned furniture and bloodstains on the floor.

The hospital guard said security men at the education building and police engaged in a 90-minute gun battle only a week ago. He surmised that Tuesday’s attack was payback.

Gunfire reportedly was minimal during the raid, and several witnesses said the building’s guards did not resist the large force.

Khateeb, the Higher Education Ministry spokesman, said Maliki rejected a proposal by the ministry to close down Iraq’s colleges and universities in response to the attack. The prime minister did create a committee to investigate the raid, a move that satisfied ministry officials, Khateeb said.

Although the kidnapping victims included Shiites and Sunnis, Sunni leaders said the raid was a sectarian attack. Sunnis dominate the Higher Education Ministry.

“We are sure that this operation is not simply criminal but political in nature,” said Ammar Wajuih, a Sunni member of parliament. “It happened in an area that is known for being thick with Iraqi security forces and checkpoints.”

*

moore1@latimes.com

Times staff writers Saad Khalaf and Zeena Kareem in Baghdad contributed to this report.