Gunmen Kidnap Two Americans, Briton in Baghdad
Thu Sep 16, 2004 08:27 AM ET
By Waleed Ibrahim and Mariam Karouny
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen snatched two Americans and a Briton from a house in an affluent neighborhood of central Baghdad on Thursday, the latest in a nearly six-month campaign of abductions of foreigners in Iraq.
The kidnapping adds to a sense of insecurity created by months of violence that has prompted U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to question whether elections can be held in January, as planned by Iraq's interim government and its U.S. backers.
George W. Bush's challenger for November's U.S. presidential election, John Kerry, also questioned Iraq's vote timetable and a leaked U.S. government security analysis showed Washington is gloomy about Iraqi stability and fears possible civil war.
Annan also said last year's U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was "illegal." They were some of his strongest comments to date and recalled the bitter international controversy over the war.
Iraq's Interior Ministry said two of the men seized in Baghdad were U.S. citizens. The third was British. They work for GSCS, a United Arab Emirates-based firm that has won several building contracts in Iraq, the company said.
The men were staying in a two-story building in the wealthy Mansur district when gunmen stormed the house at dawn.
An Interior Ministry spokesman said no shots were fired. Colonel Adnan Abdel-Rahman quoted witnesses as saying the men were bundled into a minivan and driven off.
Neighbors described the men as young and said their house was poorly secured, with only one unarmed guard at the gate. One neighbor said the contractors had received threats before.
The U.S. embassy said it had no independent information, while the British embassy said it was investigating.
More than 100 foreigners have been snatched in recent months. Some two dozen have been killed but most have been freed. At least four Europeans are still being held -- two male French journalists seized last month and two female aid workers from Italy.
The latest abductions follow a spate of violence in which nearly 200 Iraqis have been killed in bomb blasts, clashes and other attacks countrywide over the past few days.
A roadside bomb in Baghdad on Thursday killed a passer-by and wounded 16. Another bomb south of Baghdad killed one person. In Baghdad, Iraqi security forces found and defused a car laden with 880 pounds of explosives near the Green Zone.
ELECTION DELAY?
In a report to the U.N. Security Council last week, Annan said the violence, often attributed to international Islamist movements or militants loyal to Saddam Hussein, would make it hard to hold elections in January.
On Wednesday he was blunter.
"You cannot have credible elections if the security conditions continue as they are now," he told the BBC.
The United Nations has advised Iraq on the polls, which are crucial to U.S. plans to establish a legitimate government able to run its own security without large numbers of U.S. troops and stabilize a nation with a major share of the world's oil.
Annan also said the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was illegal because it violated the U.N. Charter. Washington ally Australia was quick to reject the charge. "The action was entirely valid in international law terms," Prime Minister John Howard said.
In a new report compiled by the U.S. National Intelligence Council for Bush, government intelligence analysts present a gloomy outlook for Iraq, saying the country could descend into civil war, the New York Times said on Thursday.
The classified National Intelligence Estimate, the first on Iraq since late 2002, said the best possible outcome would be a nation with tenuous stability in political, economic and security terms, the paper said, citing government officials.
KIDNAP CAMPAIGN
Several security firms and other small foreign businesses have their headquarters in the Mansur district, a well appointed area that once housed many embassies. Most foreign-operated offices there are heavily protected by armed guards.
While the neighborhood is increasingly populated by foreigners, many contractors and security consultants remain in the Green Zone, a heavily fortified, central complex on the banks of the Tigris protected by U.S. troops.
Dozens of truck drivers from Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait and other Arab countries have been seized over the past six months and demands made for their employers to stop work in Iraq.
Many firms have said they will cease operations, a move that is likely to hamper reconstruction efforts in Iraq. Others have refused to give into demands and the hostages have been killed.
© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.
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