Gunmen in Iraqi police uniforms seized dozens of men at a government building in central Baghdad today in what may be the biggest mass kidnapping seen in the city.
A witness who works in the building but had stepped out when the gunmen arrived said he returned to see police standing idly by as the kidnappers checked identity cards in a car park to sort Sunnis from Shias and then drove off with Sunni men.
Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Abdul Kareem Khalaf
Senior officials, often keen to play down sectarian tension, insisted men from both Muslim sects were taken.
"It's a terrorist act. They kidnapped more than 100 employees and visitors," said Higher Education Minister Abd Dhiab, a member of the main Sunni Arab political bloc.
He said the gunmen headed eastwards - into Shia east Baghdad - followed by police units which later said they lost the trail.
Elsewhere, Iraqi officials said US raids in a Shia district of Baghdad and in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Ramadi killed six and at least 30 people respectively overnight. The US military had no immediate comment.
Unrelenting violence has added to the pressure on Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to crack down on militias, some of which are linked to his Shi'ite political allies.
Policeman and soldiers guard the compound of the Higher Education Ministry in Baghdad which was stormed by gunmen who kidnapped around 150 people. Photograph: Reuters / Mahmoud Raouf Mahmoud
US President George W Bush has also said he is open to "fresh perspectives" to stem the violence in Iraq after his Republicans suffered a "thumping" at midterm elections last week, partly due to dismay over the war.
Numerous mass kidnappings have been blamed on sectarian militias operating either within the security forces or with the help of police in providing equipment.
Saddam Hussein's once dominant Sunni minority and US officials have focused suspicion on militias from the Shia Muslim parties, who control the Interior Ministry.
Washington, under mounting domestic political pressure to start pulling its 150,000 troops out of Iraq, has placed a heavy emphasis on recruiting and training Iraqi security forces, but their competence and sectarian loyalties remain in doubt.
Minister Dhiab said both Sunnis and Shias were seized in the raid, which cleared the four-storey building of all staff and visitors, from directors to guards and teaboys. He said it was a well-planned operation that took no more than 15 minutes.
Women were separated from the men and locked in a room after having their mobile phones confiscated by the gunmen, who drove up to the ministry's Research Directorate in the commercial, religiously mixed district of Karrada, in government vehicles.
"All Interior Ministry forces are on alert, searching for this group. We don't know if it's terrorists, militias or even government forces," Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Abdul Kareem Khalaf said.