Iraq:British prime minister Tony Blair pledged yesterday to support Iraq's government as it battles instability, underscored when gunmen carried out a mass kidnapping at a Red Crescent office in the capital.
Just before Mr Blair landed in Baghdad for an unannounced visit, police said 10 to 20 people were seized from the Red Crescent's Baghdad office but the aid agency said more were snatched. Witnesses said the gunmen arrived in pick-up trucks.
"They took all the men, separated them from the women and left," a witness said. Those snatched included Red Crescent employees, visitors and guards.
"We call for their immediate and unconditional release," said Antonella Notari, spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva. She said at least 25 people had been taken by gunmen from among staff and visitors. ICRC carries out much of its work in Iraq through the Red Crescent. None of its personnel were snatched.
The Iraqi Red Crescent, the only Iraqi aid agency working in Iraq's 18 provinces, has 1,000 staff and 200,000 volunteers.
Baghdad is plagued by daily kidnappings, many of which are carried out by armed groups on either side of the conflict between majority Shias and minority Sunni Arabs.
Mr Blair said he and Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki had discussed the need for national reconciliation and building up Iraq's security forces to fight soaring Shia/Sunni sectarian violence that has pushed the country close to all-out civil war. "We stand ready to support you in every way that we can so that in time the Iraq government and the Iraqi people can take full responsibility for their affairs," said Mr Blair, who is touring the Middle East.
Later, an Iraqi militant group linked to al-Qaeda urged Iraq's Sunni Muslims in an internet recording posted yesterday to wage war on the country's Shia Muslims. "Stand like one man . . . and cut their [ Shias] throats, spill their blood, burn the ground underneath them, and rain bombs on them," said the speaker, who said he was the official spokesman of "the Islamic state in Iraq". Iraqi Sunni militant groups including al-Qaeda announced in October the creation of what they described as an Islamic state in Iraq.
The visit by Mr Blair, Washington's closest ally, comes as US president George Bush is rethinking his Iraq strategy following the defeat of the Republican party in mid-term elections and in the face of continuing US military casualties.
Mr Blair defended London's plans for a gradual withdrawal of its 7,200 troops in the south, mostly in and around oil-rich Basra, as Iraq's fledgling security forces take over.
"This isn't a change of our policy," he said. "Don't be under any doubt at all. British troops will remain until the job is done."
Britain has transferred authority to Iraqis in two of the four southern provinces it took responsibility for after the US-led invasion in 2003. It has said it is confident it can hand over Basra to the Iraqis early next year and hopes to have brought thousands of troops home by the end of 2007.
Mr Blair, on his sixth visit to Iraq since the 2003 invasion and with his legacy tarnished by Iraq, said in Baghdad the bloodshed was being carried out by "Saddamists and terrorists" and appealed to Iraq's neighbours for help. He later told British troops in Basra the conflict was now "about different groups of the local population fighting each other". Washington and London say Iraq is not in a civil war but other leaders, including former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, say it is.
Mr Maliki's Shia-led government is under pressure from Washington to do more to stem daily violence that UN officials estimate kills more than 100 people a day.
- (Reuters)