Gunmen dressed as Iraqi military kidnapped dozens of employees of the Red Crescent...

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/news2/2006/12/violence_escala.html

The Associated Press reports:

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

An official of the Iraqi aid group said the assailants abducted 20 to 30 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 at the office in Andalus square. They said the gunmen arrived at the office in five pickup trucks.

The Red Crescent, which is part of the international Red Cross movement, has about 1,000 staff and some 200,000 volunteers in Iraq. It works closely with the International Committee of the Red Cross, which visits detainees and tries to provide food, water and medicine to Iraqis.

[malaise]

1. Just saw that on BBC

Strange coincidence that they complained about US troops two days ago.
Pardon my tin foil hat but this reminds me of the bombing of the UN headquarters, Al Jazeera and the hotel with the press.

[Briar]

2. My thoughts exactly

All in army and police uniform, eh?

[maine_raptor]

3. On WJ this AM, there was a guest

John Mueller, author of the book, "Overblown", discussing how the whole terror threat is, well, overblown. One of his points was that some of the actual terror events are actually counter-productive to the terrorists. He cited the example of the suicide bombing at a wedding reception in Jordan last year. He said that support for al-Que-da bottomed out after that event.

I'm sure the aQ folks are aware of that fact also, so hitting the Red Crescent does seems a might peculiar if that is the case.