.Iraq govt split over hostages, militia threat
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraqi cabinet split on Wednesday over the fate of dozens of hostages snatched in a mass kidnap that raised new fears that sectarian militias can defy the government at will on the streets of Baghdad.
With momentum growing in Washington for a change in tack to force Iraqis to impose order and bring U.S. troops home, Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki played down Tuesday's daylight raid on a government building and said most of those seized by gunmen in police uniforms had now been released.
But the Sunni minister for universities whose staff were snatched said up to 80 were still missing, possibly in a Shi'ite militia stronghold, and said he would boycott the government until they were found.
Several families, all Sunnis, said they had not heard from kidnapped relatives and feared the worst.
"I have suspended my participation as a minister with the government until those people who have been kidnapped are released," Higher Education Minister Abd Dhiab told Reuters.
"If I can't save and protect the lives of the people in my ministry, whether professors or employees or students, there is no use my staying in the ministry."
He said 27 employees had been released as well as a number of people who were visiting the ministry annexe. "Around 70 or 80 still being held," Dhiab said.
However, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the 37 people who had been freed accounted for nearly all of those taken -- only a few, perhaps two to five, were still missing.
He said the Higher Education Ministry was mistaken in saying that about 100 people were initially abducted and put the total number of hostages hauled away on Tuesday at around 40. A lack of records at the ministry meant the figures were approximate.
Minister Dhiab said he could neither confirm nor deny a report that many hostages were held at a school in Sadr City.
"NOT TERRORISM"
Maliki himself played down the mass kidnap, which has put further strain on his government to disband militias involved in sectarian violence.
He called the raid the result of a dispute among various armed groups and has said lately that he can deal with Shi'ite militants using political negotiation, not force.
"What happened was not terrorism, rather it was due to dispute and conflict between militias from one side or another," he said in televised remarks. He later said the government's response had been strong and vowed to catch those responsible.
Several high-ranking police officers were hauled in for questioning after the raid, in which the force appeared at best woefully negligent or, as many Iraqis believe, complicit.
Democrats who will control the U.S. Congress following last week's electoral defeat for President George W. Bush's Republicans have said they want to start pulling out some of the 150,000 U.S. troops from Iraq within four to six months as a way to increase pressure on Iraqi leaders to provide security.
Recruiting and training over 300,000 Iraqis as soldiers and police have been a key element in U.S. strategy for reducing its own commitments and the casualty rate among its own troops. The deaths of six more Americans were announced on Wednesday.
But major question marks hang over the competence of Iraqi forces and their cohesion in the face of centrifugal sectarian and ethnic forces that are pushing Iraq towards civil war.
Iraqi leaders and U.S. commanders accept that the police force is heavily infiltrated by exactly the Shi'ite militias that the government has sworn to get off the streets.
Kidnapped employees' families said at least several of their relatives were still missing.
Four of those identified by Reuters as still being missing are all Sunnis, while the only person identified as being released, a senior ministry official, is a Shi'ite.
The father of one hostage said: "I'm sure the next place I see him will be the morgue."
However, officials declined to characterise the raid as a Shi'ite militia attack and would not comment on similarities to other such mass kidnappings, when hostages have been segregated according to their religion and either freed or killed.
Reuters
With momentum growing in Washington for a change in tack to force Iraqis to impose order and bring U.S. troops home, Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki played down Tuesday's daylight raid on a government building and said most of those seized by gunmen in police uniforms had now been released.
But the Sunni minister for universities whose staff were snatched said up to 80 were still missing, possibly in a Shi'ite militia stronghold, and said he would boycott the government until they were found.
Several families, all Sunnis, said they had not heard from kidnapped relatives and feared the worst.
"I have suspended my participation as a minister with the government until those people who have been kidnapped are released," Higher Education Minister Abd Dhiab told Reuters.
"If I can't save and protect the lives of the people in my ministry, whether professors or employees or students, there is no use my staying in the ministry."
He said 27 employees had been released as well as a number of people who were visiting the ministry annexe. "Around 70 or 80 still being held," Dhiab said.
However, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the 37 people who had been freed accounted for nearly all of those taken -- only a few, perhaps two to five, were still missing.
He said the Higher Education Ministry was mistaken in saying that about 100 people were initially abducted and put the total number of hostages hauled away on Tuesday at around 40. A lack of records at the ministry meant the figures were approximate.
Minister Dhiab said he could neither confirm nor deny a report that many hostages were held at a school in Sadr City.
"NOT TERRORISM"
Maliki himself played down the mass kidnap, which has put further strain on his government to disband militias involved in sectarian violence.
He called the raid the result of a dispute among various armed groups and has said lately that he can deal with Shi'ite militants using political negotiation, not force.
"What happened was not terrorism, rather it was due to dispute and conflict between militias from one side or another," he said in televised remarks. He later said the government's response had been strong and vowed to catch those responsible.
Several high-ranking police officers were hauled in for questioning after the raid, in which the force appeared at best woefully negligent or, as many Iraqis believe, complicit.
Democrats who will control the U.S. Congress following last week's electoral defeat for President George W. Bush's Republicans have said they want to start pulling out some of the 150,000 U.S. troops from Iraq within four to six months as a way to increase pressure on Iraqi leaders to provide security.
Recruiting and training over 300,000 Iraqis as soldiers and police have been a key element in U.S. strategy for reducing its own commitments and the casualty rate among its own troops. The deaths of six more Americans were announced on Wednesday.
But major question marks hang over the competence of Iraqi forces and their cohesion in the face of centrifugal sectarian and ethnic forces that are pushing Iraq towards civil war.
Iraqi leaders and U.S. commanders accept that the police force is heavily infiltrated by exactly the Shi'ite militias that the government has sworn to get off the streets.
Kidnapped employees' families said at least several of their relatives were still missing.
Four of those identified by Reuters as still being missing are all Sunnis, while the only person identified as being released, a senior ministry official, is a Shi'ite.
The father of one hostage said: "I'm sure the next place I see him will be the morgue."
However, officials declined to characterise the raid as a Shi'ite militia attack and would not comment on similarities to other such mass kidnappings, when hostages have been segregated according to their religion and either freed or killed.
Reuters
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