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Iraqi gunmen kill 10, kidnap engineer: ministry

Posted on: Wednesday, 18 January 2006, 04:44 CST

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen ambushed a private security team in Baghdad on Wednesday, killing 10 Iraqi guards and kidnapping a Malawian engineer working for the Iraqna mobile telephone operator, an Interior Ministry official said.

The official told Reuters the team had been traveling in a convoy of three or four vehicles when the gunmen struck in the Nafaq al-Shurta area of Baghdad.

Iraqna, part of Egyptian-owned Orascom Telecom, confirmed the attack but said its information was that two of its engineers were missing, and six guards had been killed and two seriously wounded.

"We have two engineers who are missing -- one from Malawi and one from Madagascar," Iraqna spokesman Shamil Hanafi told Reuters.

"We still do not know what has happened to them," he said.

There have been a series of attacks on Iraqna employees in the past. Hanafi said eight had been kidnapped previously -- six Iraqis and two Egyptian engineers.

Insurgents have targeted anyone associated with U.S. and Iraqi forces as part of a campaign against the Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led government.

Late on Tuesday, gunmen shot dead seven people who supply food to the Iraqi army in an attack in Baghdad, police said.

U.S. military officials have said they expect a surge in violence around the release of the final results of the December 15 parliamentary election, expected to be published on Friday.

(Additional reporting by Mussab al-Khairalla)

Source: REUTERS

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