Six Iraqi sporting officials who were kidnapped along with more than two dozen others when gunmen burst into a conference center on Saturday were released yesterday in eastern Baghdad, police and sports officials said.
Nashat Mahir al-Salman, 75, a former member of the Iraq Olympic Committee, appeared blindfolded and unharmed in Baghdad's Baladiyat neighborhood yesterday morning, Iraq's Sport Journalist Union said.
A few hours later, five others, including well-known Baghdad soccer coach Ahmed Subhi, were also dropped in the same neighborhood, the union said.
Gunmen kidnapped the chairman of Iraq's Olympic committee and at least 30 others in a brazen daylight raid on Saturday on a sports conference in the heart of Baghdad. Those kidnapped included Ahmed al-Hijiya, chairman of the Olympic Committee, and the presidents of the taekwondo and boxing federations, according to police.
In other news, a roadside bomb struck a police patrol in a culturally mixed area of Baghdad yesterday morning, killing two policement and wounding four others, police said.
In another bombing in Baghdad, a bomb placed inside a trash bag detonated, killing two and wounding 11 others. The blast occurred around 7:40am near a downtown commercial center.
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