IRAQ: Five senior Iraqi police officers were arrested last night after gunmen in police uniforms seized scores of people at a prominent scientific research institute in Baghdad in an audacious operation that underlined the lawlessness permeating the Iraqi capital and the threat it poses to the country's tottering education system.
As many as 80 armed men took part in the morning attack, which netted male academics, employees and visitors to the ministry of higher education's scientific research, scholarships and cultural relations directorate, situated in Baghdad's relatively peaceful Karradah district.
Last night there was some confusion over the number of victims. Initial reports suggested 150 had been taken. This was later revised down to 130, while last night the prime minister's office put the number at 45-50.
Major general Jalil Khalaf, the interior ministry spokesman, said those arrested included the police chief for Karradah. Also held were the commander of the police brigade in charge of the area and three other officers, he added.
The gunmen were wearing interior ministry commando uniforms specifically designed to prevent counterfeiting.
"It's a terrorist act," said Abed Dhiab, the minister for higher education. "They kidnapped more than 100 employees and visitors." The victims included Sunni and Shia Arabs, he added.
According to police sources and witnesses, the gunmen arrived in more than 20 pick-up trucks and sports utility vehicles and sealed off the approaches to the building. Several cars approached the ministry's checkpoint and their drivers reportedly told guards they were part of an advance group from the interior ministry conducting a security sweep ahead of a visit by the US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad.
Once inside the four-storey building, however, they forced men and women into separate rooms and took their mobile phones. The men, including senior academics, guards and visitors, were handcuffed and loaded on to the back of the pick-up trucks and driven off. The operation, which began at about 9.30am, was over in 15 minutes.
Three of the hostages were later reported to have been freed nearby. The gunmen were said to be heading toward the Shia stronghold of east Baghdad.
Insurgents, criminal gangs and militias have frequently carried out attacks while posing as Iraqi security officers. And the security forces themselves have been heavily infiltrated.
The interior ministry, which is controlled by the ruling Shia alliance, has repeatedly denied having links to the death squads and militias blamed by Sunni Arabs for instigating sectarian violence and kidnappings. A senior non-Shia interior ministry source told the Guardian yesterday: "In truth we don't know whether the kidnappers were terrorists, militias, criminals or interior ministry renegades. Whatever the explanation, it will do nothing for people's trust in us."
In response the minister for higher education, Abed Dhiab, ordered the suspension of all academic programmes and closed all universities, though he later appeared to pull back from a full shutdown. "I have only one choice, which is to suspend classes at universities because I am not ready to see more professors get killed," he said.
The minister, a member of a leading Sunni Arab party, also accused Iraq's security chiefs of ignoring repeated requests to beef up security around educational institutions following a series of threats.
Since the US invasion in 2003, Iraq's academic institutions and staff have come under regular attack from insurgents and religious extremists. Scores of senior academics have been killed and thousands more threatened.