Up to 150 People Kidnapped in Baghdad
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer

Tuesday, November 14, 2006 03 40 AM


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(11-14) 03:40 PST BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) --


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 instantly 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
the body's 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.


"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 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 of the
kidnappings 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.


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 there was little question
Tuesday's incident was a mass kidnapping and demanded that U.S. troops
be held responsible for the security lapse.


"The detention of 150 people from a government institution without
informing the higher education minister ... means this is an abduction
operation," al-Adib said.


"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 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 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.