25 Charity Workers Taken in 3rd Mass Abduction in Weeks
By Sudarsan Raghavan and Nancy Trejos
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, December 18, 2006
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.
"I reiterated our determination to stand foursquare behind you and the Iraqi people in ensuring that your democracy is not destroyed by terrorism, by sectarianism, by those who wish to live in hatred rather than peace," Blair said.
Asked about Sunday's kidnapping, and whether the United States and Britain were responsible for the security breakdown, Blair responded testily.
"Who is creating the difficulty in Iraq today?" he asked. "Who is creating the challenges? Who is creating the bloodshed? Terrorists and former supporters of Hussein who are trying to destroy Iraq's new democracy."
The mass abduction Sunday was the third in Baghdad in just over a month. On Thursday, gunmen rounded up about 25 shopkeepers in a busy commercial district. And on Nov. 15, 150 employees were seized from a Ministry of Higher Education agency in Karrada. In both cases, the gunmen wore police or military uniforms, witnesses said.
Abu Kara, whose shop is near the Red Crescent office, said several dusty sedans and pickup trucks with tinted black windows pulled up Sunday morning. Some of the gunmen wore camouflage uniforms while others were in civilian clothes, he said. He quickly stepped into his shop, he recalled, but a couple of gunmen ordered him and three other employees outside and told him to sit on a small white chair outside his store.
"They placed a Kalashnikov to my head," he said. "They were afraid we would use our cellphones to call for help."
The gunmen passed the tall walls of the compound and entered the office through a glass door. They broke down locked doors and sought out the men. According to Ikabi, they stole nothing. Then they left.
"They didn't fire a single shot," Abu Kara said.
Down a short corridor on the first floor, Adnan caught a glimpse of what he considers the important part of what had happened. He walked into the office used by his father, who was in charge of distributing the charity's drugs. On his desk were papers and orange folders, the signs of a busy day interrupted.
That's when Adnan spotted the gray-and-black cellphone with the silver key chain. It showed 12 missed calls.
He picked it up and stared at it. Then it rang.
Adnan answered.
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.
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