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Unknown Gunmen Abduct Aid Workers

Twenty-eight workers were abducted from the Red Crescent humanitarian group's Baghdad offices, by a group of gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms.

On Sunday 17th, at about 11:30, the gunmen arrived in two police cars, and twenty other cars, at the Red Crescent building near Andalus Square, according to a spokesperson for the aid group. Thinking they were police due to the cars, and Iraqi uniforms they wore, the staff allowed the gunmen to enter the building.

The gunmen then separated those present into male and female groups, before abducting an estimated 28 men, among which were staff, visitors, and three guards from the Dutch Embassy, which shares the offices, the spokesman went on to say.

Some people tried to hide in their rooms, but the rooms were broken into. The gunmen made the hostages turn their cell phones off, and then unplugged the phones and copy machines.

The gunmen gave no reason for the abductions, but during a conversation between them and the deputy director, the gunmen are said to have asked, "Who are you working with? What is the name of your organization?", and then told her "You work with bad people."

The Iraqi ministers of interior and defence told Red Crescent staff that neither had troops in the area.

Red Crescent, affiliated with the International Committee of the Red Cross, provides food, water and medicine in Iraq, and is a peaceful organization. They therefore have no suspicions as to may be responsible.

The International Committee of the Red Cross is the only group able to provide aid throughout Iraq, but they have to travel anonymously, for fear that their red cross emblem will provoke attack, rather than incite hope.

The abduction at the Red Crescent building is only the latest of a series of similar attacks, with factory workers, sports conference delegates, and bystanders at a bus stop being targeted previously. Most attacks were carried out by gunmen wearing police or military uniforms.