Kidnappers Strike Red Crescent's Iraq Office

BAGHDAD, Dec. 17 -- The kidnappers had left his father's cellphone on a wooden desk in the Iraqi Red Crescent Society office Sunday morning. But Wathiq Adnan did not know that as he stood in the front yard, his face as gloomy as the cold, rain-soaked sky.

Outside the compound, a cluster of police vehicles and four U.S. military Humvees were parked. They had arrived too late to stop the gunmen, who had worn police uniforms and carried police-issued guns, witnesses said.

Inside, a police intelligence officer was questioning Ayad al-Ikabi, a Red Crescent official.

"Were those who were kidnapped from different sects?" asked the official, who wore a dark suit.

"We are all mixed," replied Ikabi, who wore a black leather jacket and had a black pistol tucked into his belt.

Moments later, Ikabi and other officials walked into the two-story, oatmeal-colored office in an affluent section of Karrada, a neighborhood in central Baghdad. Adnan, who works at a different Red Crescent office, followed them.

It has become a familiar story in Baghdad. Gangs of gunmen, dressed in camouflage uniforms and driving official police vehicles, abduct dozens of employees in broad daylight, motivated by sectarian tensions, a bid for ransom or merely a desire to undermine a weak government unable to provide security for its citizens. They leave the women but take the men, then calmly drive off without firing a shot.

Almost the only difference Sunday was the target: a humanitarian organization, linked to the International Committee of the Red Cross, that has helped Iraqis cope in a nation that offers little comfort. The kidnappers took about 25 employees and a few visitors, employees said. The assault began at 11:30 a.m. and ended 15 minutes later.

The office is located in a part of the capital that is surrounded by checkpoints and concrete barriers largely because the Dutch Embassy is nearby. The gunmen also seized three embassy guards as they left.

"I don't know why this happened," Ikabi said before going into the office. "We are not connected to any sect or any political party."

The kidnappings took place less than a mile from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri-al Maliki's residence in the fortified Green Zone, where al-Maliki met with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Sunday. Blair, who made an unannounced visit to Baghdad, pledged to keep his country's troops in Iraq "until the job is done."

"Don't be under any doubt at all, British troops will remain until the job is done, and that job is building up the Iraqi capability," Blair said, echoing statements by President Bush about U.S. troops.