Dozens kidnapped from Baghdad aid office(Red Crescent)

[maddezmom]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms staged a mass kidnapping on Sunday at the office of the Iraqi Red Crescent in downtown Baghdad, police said.

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An official of the Iraqi aid group said the assailants abducted dozens of employees and visitors, but left women behind. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.

Police, however, said they did not know how many people were kidnapped. They said the gunmen arrived at the office in five pickup trucks.

link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061217/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_mass_kidnapping

GUNMEN KIDNAP DOZENS AT IRAQI RED CRESCENT OFFICE IN BAGHDAD - RED CRESCENT OFFICIAL
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IBO733612.htm

CNNI reportind abductors had Iraqi Police Uniforms on.

Earlier thread on the Iraqi Red Crescent:

Iraqi Red Crescent cites U-S forces as `main problem'
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2654043&mesg_id=2654043

[maddezmom]

1. CNN reporting 25-30 abducted

A spokesman for the aid organization told CNN men wearing Iraqi police uniforms arrived at the offices in more than 20 vehicles around 11 a.m. local time and stormed the building.

They forced between 25 and 30 men into the vehicles and left, the spokesman said. Women were not taken.

Not a single shot was fired in the abduction, the spokesman said. (Posted 4:44 a.m.)

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/12/17/sunday/index.html?section=cnn_latest

[Briar]

12. Men wearing police and army uniforms

or policemen and soldiers? Isn't it about time we stopped pretending the uniforms and the men inside them aren't a full set?

And just a couple of days ago, the Red Crescent were criticising the US occupation...

[Raine]

2. How gentlemanly

to leave the women behind instead of kidnapping them too, real classy. :sarcasm:

EDIT: changed words for clarification

[aaronbees]

3. that's awful news

I hope they are safe and out of harm's way soon.

[maddezmom]

4. Sunni local councillor shot dead and 3 more kidnapped

The hostage-takers, jumping out of around 10 pick-up trucks, raided the Red Cresent building in Karada in broad daylight, snatching between 20 and 30 men but leaving women behind, a security source said.

Iraqi police and US troops were rapidly drafted in to seal off the area and monitor all traffic in and out of the abduction zone.

Meanwhile, a short distance away another gang -- again in the uniforms of the Shiite-dominated security forces -- shot dead one Sunni local councillor and kidnapped three more from their car, a security official said.

The latest abduction came just three days after gunmen in military uniforms snatched dozens of businessmen from a commercial street in Baghdad, before releasing around 29 hostages, all Shiites.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061217/ts_afp/iraq_061217122500

[Sparkly]

5. Terrible in so many ways

I wonder why the abductors wore army uniforms? Assuming they aren't part of the army, it makes things more confusing to the people -- makes them unsure who to trust. It's already confusing, since the militias don't wear uniforms; but donning uniforms this way has a broader impact. (And of course, they've been doing this awhile.)

And, I wonder what "message" they were trying to send, considering this:

The abduction comes just days after the organization's vice president, Dr. Jamal al-Karbouli, said American forces represented a greater danger to its work than insurgents.

"The insurgents, they are Iraqis, a lot of them are Iraqis, and they respect the Iraqis. And they respect our (the Red Crescent's) identity, which is neutrality," al-Karbouli said Friday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061217/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

[Igel]

13. Perhaps he'll want to revise his statements.

BTW, is the Iraqi Red Crescent Sunni-dominated, any one?

[Robbien]

6. Kidnapping overshadows Blair visit

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Iraq on an unannounced stop in his Middle East tour and pledged his continued support for the new Iraqi government against those who seek to derail it.

Meanwhile, Iraqi security forces were searching for more than two dozen kidnapped Iraqi Red Crescent visitors and employees. The kidnapping was confirmed by Red Crescent officials and an interior ministry official.

. . .

The interior ministry official said there were several Iraqi police patrols and checkpoints in the area but it was assumed the kidnappers were a legitimate force.

The Iraqi commandos are part of the interior ministry forces which have in the past been accused of running death and kidnapping squads.

The Iraqi Red Crescent offices are located in Al-Andalus square in central Baghdad, very close to the Palestine Hotel.

In another kidnapping Sunday, three members of the Adhamiyyah council were abducted and a fourth was killed when gunmen in three vehicles stopped them as they drove in Baghdad's Palestine Street around 2 p.m., according to an official with the interior ministry.

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/12/17/iraq.main/index.html?eref=edition

[bigworld]

7. I just don't get it

I follow the news as best I can, and I'm pretty open minded, but I just don't get what kidnappers like this are wanting to achieve. What's the goal of kidnapping and torturing (with drills to the head, no less) a bunch of university teachers or Red Crescent workers?

[Eugene]

14. Kill the men from the other sect.

This has been a standard death squad tactic for the past three years.

Round up the men and check their ID's. Their last names will give away whether
they are Sunni or Shiite. Release the men from your side. Torture and kill the men
from the other side.

In a raid on businesses last week, gunmen took 40-70 persons away. They released 25,
all Shiites. Iraqis are fleeing by the thousands.

[Jazzgirl]

8. I have failed to pay attention to who most of the

victims are. Are they primarily Shiite or Sunni? If the victims are mostly Sunni, it makes me wonder if someone isn't going out of their way to point the finger at al Sadr. Maybe someone is looking for an excuse to go after him hard? Just speculation. He seems to be the big kink in everything.

JG

[llmart]

9. Sigh. The media never reports the good news.....

Aren't there schools being built we can focus on instead?

:sarcasm:

[maddezmom]

11. ah yes, the schools

A battlefield called school
Iraq violence threatens teachers and students. Campuses are closing.

BAGHDAD — Iraq's schools, long touted by American officials as a success story in a land short on successes, increasingly are being caught in the crossfire of the country's escalating civil war.

President Bush has routinely talked about the refurbishment and construction of schools as a neglected story of progress in Iraq. The U.S. Agency for International Development has spent about $100 million on Iraq's education system and cites the rehabilitation of 2,962 school buildings as a signal accomplishment.

But today, across the country, campuses are being shuttered, students and teachers driven from their classrooms and parents left to worry that a generation of traumatized children will go without education.

Teachers tell of students kidnapped on their way to school, mortar rounds landing on or near campuses and educators shot in front of children.


more:http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-schools16dec16,1,2851685.story?track=rss

[LuckyLib]

15. The success story of Iraqi schools was that they were functioning

perfectly well before we destroyed them, and Iraq had a highly literate and educated population. We've blown that all to bits as well, since those with resources, talents, and education have or will be leaving the country. Thanks to US, it's all shot to hell. But, of course, they don't have their dictator anymore. We, on the other hand, have one firmly planted in the white house.

[maddezmom]

10. ICRC calls for release of Iraqi Red Crescent staff abducted in Baghdad

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called today for the immediate and unconditional release of all persons abducted from one of the Iraqi Red Crescent Society offices in Baghdad.

Geneva (ICRC) - Some 30 persons, most of them Iraqi Red Crescent workers, were kidnapped by unidentified armed men in the morning of 17 December from their duty station in the Iraqi capital.

Shortly thereafter, ICRC Director of Operations Pierre Krähenbühl appealed for the unconditional and immediate release of the Iraqi Red Crescent personnel and of all others abducted with them.

"I call upon those who carried out the kidnapping at the Iraqi Red Crescent office to immediately release all the abducted persons unharmed," he said.

"Iraqi Red Crescent workers provide vital help for all Iraqis in need.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/220224/37fe75bec7fa4f05c3582c8d3e0ec816.htm