IRAQ: The Iraqi cabinet split yesterday over the fate of dozens of hostages snatched in a mass kidnap that raised new fears that sectarian militias can defy the government at will.
With momentum growing in Washington for a change in tack to force Iraqis to impose order and bring US troops home, Shia prime minister Nuri al-Maliki played down Tuesday's raid on a government building by gunmen in police uniforms, saying most of those seized had now been released and the kidnappers would be found and punished.
But the Sunni minister for universities, whose staff were snatched, said between 70 and 80 people were still missing and were possibly held in a Shia militia stronghold.
"I have suspended my participation as a minister with the government until those people who have been kidnapped are released," the higher education minister, Abd Dhiab, said.
Several families, all Sunnis, said they had not heard from kidnapped relatives and feared the worst. The father of one said: "I'm sure the next place I see him will be the morgue."
Meanwhile, another 55 unidentified bodies, most of them tortured and shot, were found in Baghdad yesterday.
More than 40 other deaths were reported, including those of six US soldiers and 12 people killed by a car bomb in Baghdad. - (Reuters)