IRAQ: Gunmen abducted two Italian aid workers and two Iraqis in central Baghdad yesterday in a brazen attack that will alarm foreigners already on edge from widespread kidnappings.
Witnesses said about 20 men with AK-47 assault rifles and pistols with silencers stopped their vehicles in broad daylight in a busy commercial area of Baghdad and raided a building housing the humanitarian organisation, Bridge to Baghdad.
They left with Italians Ms Simona Pari and Ms Simona Torretta and two Iraqis, a womawho worked for another Italian organisation Intersos and a male employee of Bridge to Baghdad.
"It appeared it was totally professional. It appeared they knew exactly who they wanted to abduct," said one witness, who declined to be named. Gunmen dragged the Iraqi woman away by the hair.
The Italian women were involved in an aid initiative aimed at boosting school attendance in Basra and Baghdad - including in the capital's Sadr City slums, home to thousands of Shias.
The latest abductions are likely to fuel uncertainty over the fate of two French journalists whose kidnappings have triggered intense diplomatic efforts to free them. A statement released on Monday demanded a $5 million ransom for the two journalists within 48 hours.
The Internet statement, made in the name of the Islamic Army in Iraq which has said it was holding the hostages, said the militants had planned to release the men but attacks by American troops had prevented them from doing so.
Meanwhile, Iraqi fighters and US troops clashed in Sadr City yesterday in firefights that killed 24 Iraqis and one US soldier and threatened to wreck a ceasefire called by cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Rocket-propelled grenades were fired at soldiers several times overnight and several roadside bombs had been detonated in the neighbourhood. At least five US soldiers were wounded.
Sadr City was not included in a peace deal which ended three weeks of fighting in August in the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf between US and Iraqi troops and fighters loyal to Sadr.
Sadr aides said last week the young cleric had called a ceasefire and intended to field candidates in elections due in January, campaigning for the withdrawal of US forces.