Kidnappers Strike Red Crescent's Iraq Office

Britain's prime minister, Tony Blair, signs a vehicle on a visit to British troops in Basra. In Baghdad, he said troops would stay in Iraq "until the job is done." (By Eddie Keogh -- Associated Press)

The caller's voice was unfamiliar.

"Who are you? Whom have you called? Abu Wathiq?" Adnan asked.

The man said he was calling for his father.

"Tell me who you are." Adnan pressed, his voice growing frantic. "I am his son."

The man told him he was a friend of his father's.

Adnan said he would talk to him later. It wasn't the kidnappers.

Then his own phone started to ring. It was a relative. Adnan gave him directions to the Red Crescent office, then walked outside again in a daze.

"I have no idea who would do this," he said. "Only God knows."

"This is not personal," he added. "This is a general thing. It happens all the time in Iraq. There is no security. If there was security, would there be kidnappings?"

His phone rang again. Another relative. More directions.

Clutching his father's cellphone, Adnan walked to the road. Qasim Mahdi had arrived to search for his nephew, Falah, also kidnapped. Falah's sister, who had come with Mahdi, began to scream, then wail and beat her chest. Some local residents took her into their house to comfort her.

Outside, Mahdi raised his hands to the sky.

"Is there a government?" he asked, addressing no one in particular.

Down the street, past the police vehicles, Adnan's phone rang again.

Special correspondents Saad al-Izzi and K.I. Ibrahim in Baghdad contributed to this report.