Gunmen seized two Algerian diplomats Thursday -- including the country's top envoy to Iraq -- in the latest attacks aimed at scaring away Muslim diplomats and undermining the US-backed Iraqi government.
The abductions brought to five the number of key diplomats from Muslim countries targeted in Baghdad in less than three weeks. The top Egyptian envoy was reportedly killed after being captured, and two apparent kidnapping attempts against diplomats were foiled.
The chief of Algeria's mission in Iraq, charge d'affaires Ali Belaroussi, 62, and another Algerian diplomat, Azzedine Belkadi, 47, were dragged from their car along with their driver in west Baghdad's upscale Mansour district, police and Algerian officials said.
By yesterday, no claim of responsibility had surfaced, Algerian authorities said. They expressed surprise over why the Algerians were captured, saying Algiers has steadfastly refused to take part in the US-led coalition.
A fellow diplomat, Abdelwahab Felahi, told Algerian radio that he was in another car when he saw their brake lights flash and knew there was a problem.
"I wasn't armed, and I couldn't intervene, and in the time it took to warn police in front of the embassy, the kidnappers, diplomats and their vehicle had disappeared," said Felahi, adding he was to meet Belaroussi for lunch a half-hour after the time of the kidnapping.
Belaroussi, a career diplomat and father of four, has been in Iraq for about two years, and served as financial director at Algeria's embassy in Paris from 1997 to 2002, Algerian officials said.
Iraqi Deputy Interior Minister Ahmed Al-Khafaji told Al-Jazeera television that the Algerian envoy had refused Iraqi offers to provide him with bodyguards, saying he didn't need protection because "Algeria's relationship with the Iraqis is good."
Yesterday, a spate of violent attacks across Baghdad left at least 12 people dead, including six Iraqi policemen and a newlywed bride.
Assailants shot dead three policemen in the eastern Mashtal district in Baghdad as they were directing traffic, said police lieutenant Osama Adnan.
In two other attacks on police patrols in eastern Baghdad, three police officers were killed and three others injured.
Gunmen also fired on a car carrying a newlywed couple and their families, killing the bride and her mother and wounding the groom, in the southern Dora neighborhood, according to police and medical officials.
Dawn clashes between insurgents and a joint Iraqi police-army patrol left two suspected insurgents dead, police said. A soldier and a police officer were wounded in the fighting.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon has told the US Congress that progress toward establishing democracy in Iraq is on track despite a deadly insurgency, but it offered no estimate of when US troops would start withdrawing.
In its most comprehensive public assessment yet of conditions in Iraq, the military released a 23-page report that described progress and problems on the political, economic and security fronts.
The report says the key will be reaching the point when Iraqi security forces are trained and equipped at a level at which they can assume primary responsibility. It does not estimate when that will happen.
RSS