IRAQ:There is disagreement over whether the Shia Mahdi army is behind the abductions of five Britons, write Audrey Gillan and Richard Norton-Taylor
Areas of Baghdad were under lockdown yesterday as American and Iraqi troops searched for the five British men who were kidnapped in the city on Tuesday.
There was speculation that the four security guards and the financial consultant they were protecting were taken hostage as an act of revenge for the British army's help in the killing of a Mahdi army militia leader.
Iraq's foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, said Shia militia groups had taken the men, but a leading cleric with experience in hostage negotiation said he did not believe the Mahdi army was responsible. Sheikh Abdel al-Sattar al-Bahadli told the BBC Arab service that Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi militia were not involved, and wanted to peacefully build a new Iraq.
The four security guards, employed by GardaWorld, and their client, who works for the US company BearingPoint, were abducted from inside the finance ministry building in Baghdad just before noon on Tuesday.
They were driven away by men in police uniforms in the direction of Sadr City, the Shia district to the northeast.
Margaret Beckett, the UK foreign secretary, said British officials were doing all they could to secure the "swift and safe release" of the men.
Speaking in Berlin, where she is attending a G8 foreign ministers' meeting, she said: "This is clearly a very distressing time for all concerned. Foreign Office officials are offering help and assistance to the next of kin. We are working closely with the Iraqi authorities."
British prime minister Tony Blair, speaking in Sierra Leone, said: "We know the dangers and challenges there, but we shouldn't let those who are prepared to use kidnapping and terrorism succeed."
Canon Andrew White, an Anglican vicar based in Baghdad who runs the Foundation for Reconciliation in the Middle East and has experience of hostage negotiations, claimed that US troops killed civilians in Sadr City yesterday, jeopardising what was a delicate process.
"I am so angry with the Americans. They have really messed up our negotiations by going into Sadr City and killing people," he said. "I have been negotiating with Islamic Shi'ite religious people I work with all the time."
Canon White, who shared accommodation with the GardaWorld men, added: "We know who did it. It's a Shi'ite group, the Mahdi army. But the thing is the Mahdi army is not one organisation. It has now split. This is one of the problems - we are dealing with factions."
The US military issued a statement saying that it had arrested five suspected militants and one suspected leader of a militant cell during early-morning raids in Sadr City. It said no shots were fired. Iraqi police said two civilians were killed and four others were injured in crossfire from gun battles during one of the raids.
Mr Zebari said the kidnappings were sophisticated. "It has been a known fact for some time that the interior ministry police, security units and forces are corrupt, are penetrated. This issue is very serious, challenging the government." Whitehall officials questioned claims that it was a revenge attack in response to the killing last week of Wissam Abu Qader, the Mahdi army's leader in Basra.
Qader was shot by Iraqi special forces in an operation supported by British soldiers described by UK military officials as being "present as advisers". - ( Guardian service)