Iraq kidnappings go on

By Paul Tait and Michael Georgy

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Four Iranian pilgrims and a German
woman were missing in Iraq on Tuesday after being seized by
gunmen, in an apparent return to the dire security conditions
foreigners faced from hostage-takers in the country last year.

The abductions follow the seizure of four aid workers —
two Canadians, a Briton and an American — who were snatched in
west Baghdad on Saturday, and come despite an Iraqi official’s
prediction that U.S. troops may soon start to withdraw.

The six Iranians — four men and two women — were taken on
Monday with an Iraqi woman as they were returning from a visit
to a Shi’ite holy site, Iraqi police said. The three women were
later released, but it was not clear under what circumstances.

With elections looming on December 15 as a landmark along
the road to the withdrawal of foreign troops, Iraq’s national
security adviser said up to 30,000 of the 155,000 U.S. troops
in Iraq could quit the country in early 2006 as the performance
of local security forces improved.

Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said a recent fall in guerrilla attacks
marked “the beginning of the end of the insurgency.”

“We have tipped the balance now to our favor and the
momentum is only going to get better,” Rubaie told Reuters in
an interview when asked about American troop withdrawals.

His remarks appeared to contradict assessments by U.S.
generals who say very few Iraqi units are ready to fight alone.

PILGRIMAGE TO SHRINE

The Iranian group was abducted as they made a pilgrimage to
a Shi’ite shrine in the city of Balad, a mixed Shi’ite and
Sunni Arab town about 80 km (50 miles) north of the capital,
Baghdad.

Gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying the pilgrims,
seriously wounding the driver, police said. The driver, Hameed
Hashim, told Reuters he was beaten by around six gunmen.

It was the second attack on religious pilgrims in a day.
Three British Muslims were killed when their minibus was fired
on by gunmen in Baghdad as it was returning from Kerbala, a
holy city to the south. Two others escaped with injuries.

In a videotape broadcast on Tuesday, unidentified
kidnappers threatened to kill German archaeologist Susanne
Osthoff, who has been missing since Friday, unless Berlin
stopped cooperating with Iraq’s U.S.-backed government,
Germany’s ARD TV reported.

Extracts from the tape showed three armed, masked figures
surrounding two blindfolded people sitting on the ground.

Germany’s government said it had set up a crisis unit and
was working to secure her release.

There had been a lull in the kidnapping of Westerners in
Iraq, with the most recent case before this week being the
abduction of Irish journalist Rory Carroll in Baghdad last
month. Carroll was released unharmed after 36 hours.

More than 200 foreigners have been kidnapped since the
U.S-led invasion in 2003. Around 50 have been executed since
2004.

Thousands of Iraqis have also been kidnapped over the same
period, either for ransom or for political motives as Sunni
Arabs and foreign fighters lead a bloody insurgency against the
Shi’ite- and Kurdish-led government.

AID WORKERS SNATCHED

U.S., British and Canadian authorities are also seeking
their missing nationals, who were working for peace and
humanitarian group Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), one of the
few remaining aid groups operating in Iraq.

Britain’s Foreign Office has identified the Briton as
Norman Kember, 74, a retired professor.

“The names of the other hostages are being withheld in the
interest of their security,” CPT said in a statement.

Police said two prominent Iraqis had also been kidnapped.
Saad Albana, a senior official in the Housing and
Reconstruction Ministry, was abducted from his Baghdad home on
Monday.

Gunmen also abducted Thafer Migwil Hazza, a relative of
deposed leader Saddam Hussein and a former Iraqi army officer,
from his house in Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit, police said.

Political slayings are also on the rise ahead of the poll.

Bashar Shnawa Gaber, a senior member of the Shi’ite Dawa
party, was shot dead in Baghdad on Monday, a Dawa party
spokesman said on Tuesday. Jaafari’s Dawa party forms part of
the ruling United Iraqi Alliance.

Sunni Arab politicians Iyad Alizi and Ali Hussein and a
bodyguard were shot dead as they drove in Baghdad on Monday.

On Tuesday, two members of the Christian Assyrian
Democratic Movement were shot and killed and another two were
wounded by gunmen as they put up election campaign posters in
the northeastern city of Mosul.

The shootings, all apparently politically motivated, will
likely provoke further sectarian anger.

Two U.S. soldiers were killed on Tuesday when their patrol
hit a roadside bomb north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said,
taking the toll of American troops killed in Iraq to 2,110.

(With additional reporting by Paul Hughes in Tehran and
Ahmed Rasheed, Deepa Babington and Luke Baker in Baghdad)