US contract worker abducted in Baghdad

An American contractor has become the latest foreigner to be abducted in Baghdad, according to a US embassy spokesman.

An American contractor has become the latest foreigner to be abducted in Baghdad, according to a US embassy spokesman.

The contractor, who was working on a reconstruction project, was kidnapped in the greater Baghdad area, Bob Callaghan said. "No group has claimed responsibility. We have contacted the Iraqi authorities to try and find him," he added.

The kidnapping, one day after an official at the Pakistani embassy was abducted by an insurgent group, is likely to raise new concerns about security.

Violence had eased after January 30th elections and Iraqi politicians have been promising to stabilise the country.

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Two Americans - businessman Nick Berg and contractor Eugene Armstrong - were abducted and beheaded last year by a group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda's leader in Iraq.

Putting a stop to kidnappings is one of the major security challenges facing Iraq's post-election government.

More than 150 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq over the past year. Some have been released - often following a payment of ransom - but about a third have been killed, some have been beheaded. Thousands of Iraqis have also been abducted.

Three journalists from staunch US ally Romania and their translator, who has triple American, Romanian and Iraqi nationality, were kidnapped in Baghdad last month.

French journalist Florence Aubenas and her driver were taken hostage after leaving their Baghdad hotel in January.

Little is known about their fate since then, but Iraqi insurgents released video footage of Aubenas in March. Looking distraught and fragile, she made a desperate appeal for help. Video footage of the Romanian captives has also surfaced.

An Egyptian diplomat was seized by insurgents on his way home from prayers last year but was freed a few days later.

Earlier two suicide car bombs exploded at the entrance to a US military camp, killing two civilians and wounding three, in the western Iraqi town of Qaim, close to the border with Syria, witnesses said.

The first car rammed into a checkpoint outside the camp and detonated before breaching the gate, witnesses said.  US and Iraqi troops rushed to help the wounded when a second car bomber raced up and blew up his vehicle, they said.

The witnesses, speaking in Ramadi, about 300 km east of Qaim, said three US helicopters arrived at the scene to evacuate casualties.

US forces in the area were not immediately available to comment.

Many Iraqis want US forces to leave Iraq but they fear Iraqi security forces are not capable of ending the bloodshed.

The Pentagon is limiting deployments of US troops to Iraq and other combat zones to 12 months, with a new memo requiring Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to approve any major extensions.