Two Americans and a Briton were kidnapped from their plush Baghdad home Thursday, as the two main powers behind last year's invasion became the latest victims of a five-month-old hostage crisis.
The new abductions came against the backdrop of fresh UN criticism of the US-led intervention, with Secretary General Kofi Annan for the first time describing the invasion as "illegal."
Interior ministry spokesman Colonel Adnan Abdul Rahman said the three hostages worked for a Gulf-based private equipment firm.
Armed men drove up in a minibus shortly after 6am and burst into the trio's home in the upmarket Mansur neighborhood of the capital.
British and US diplomats were scrambling to obtain hard information on the abduction after initial reports described all three hostages as British.
"We've heard the report from the interior ministry and we're trying to get to the bottom of it," US embassy spokesman Richard Schmierer told reporters.
A British spokeswoman said only that the embassy was desperately trying to determine what happened.
The raid on the trio's private home was reminiscent of the way two Italian women aid workers and two Iraqi colleagues were snatched at gunpoint from inside their house in a quiet residential area of Baghdad earlier this month.
It was likely to further deplete an already dwindling expatriate community whose know-how is seen as essential to plans to revive the war-shattered economy and build a new Iraq.
Two French journalists kidnapped almost a month ago were still being held by a Sunni militant group despite relentless efforts by their government to secure their release.
More than 100 foreigners are thought to have been abducted in Iraq since April, as insurgents have adopted a new tactic alongside their longstanding diet of mortar and rocket-propelled grenade attacks and roadside bombings.
A massive car bomb attack against the capital's main police station killed 49 people Tuesday and a new explosion rocked the capital at noon on Wednesday.
The surge of violence coincided with the publication by the New York Times of extracts from a US intelligence report painting a bleak picture of Iraq's future.
Without providing any specific details of the 50-page report prepared by the National Intelligence Council, one official who had read it said it contained "a significant amount of pessimism."
In another blow to the US administration, Annan gave an interview to the BBC in which he described last year's invasion as "illegal."
"I've indicated that it was not in conformity with the UN charter from our point of view, and from the charter point of view it was illegal," he said.
Annan also said it was unlikely that Iraq would be able to hold "credible elections" as planned in January 2005 "if the security conditions continue as they are now."
US President George W. Bush, in the midst of a re-election campaign dominated by a debate on the war in Iraq, did not immediately react to the UN chief's comments.
But Australian Prime Minister John Howard hit back at Annan, accusing him of heading a "paralyzed" body and insisting the war was legitimate.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
RSS