Gunmen have kidnapped a player for one of Iraq's biggest soccer clubs, just days before he was due to sign a transfer to a Syrian club to escape the raging violence in his homeland, an Iraqi official said yesterday.
Ghanim Khudheyir, 22 is a striker for the Iraqi Air Force club and was taken from his home on Thursday by gunmen in civilian clothes who claimed to be intelligence officers from the Interior Ministry, team manager Mohammed Rasoul said.
Police said the kidnappers, who wore camouflage uniforms, struck on Sunday morning, but Rasoul said the club and Khudheyir's family had delayed reporting the incident until they checked whether or not he was indeed being held by the Interior Ministry.
Rasoul said Khudheyir was one of the club's brightest talents and had recently played for the national under-23 Olympic team.
He said the player had been due to sign with a Syrian club last Saturday after helping his club win the first post-war championship.
"He requested a termination of his contract so he could join the Syrian al-Furat club on Saturday. He was afraid of the deterioration in security. I hope the kidnappers will release him soon and unharmed," Rasoul said.
Sportsmen have become more frequent targets in Iraq -- national soccer coach Akram Salman fled to Iraq's Kurdistan region earlier this year after receiving death threats. In July, gunmen abducted the head of Iraq's National Olympic Committee and 30 other people in Baghdad, and in May, 15 athletes and officials from the Taekwondo martial arts squad were kidnapped by insurgents in western Iraq.
Meanwhile, in Anbar Province, two US Marines assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 were killed on Sunday as a result of enemy action, coalition forces said in a statement yesterday.
The names of the dead were being withheld until military officials could contact their families.
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