Kidnappers in Iraqi army uniforms
This is what we’re training them for?

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms kidnapped two dozen employees at Red Crescent offices in downtown Baghdad on Sunday, highlighting the threat to humanitarian workers swept up in Iraq’s lawlessness.

The mass abduction was the latest in a series of such attacks that have targeted workers at factories, delegates at a sports conference and bystanders at bus stations. In most cases, the gunmen wore police or military uniforms.

Their identity and motives were unclear, though the sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shiites has fueled much of the recent violence in Baghdad.

Gunmen in five pickup trucks pulled up to the office of the Iraqi Red Crescent at around 11 a.m., police said.

A Red Crescent official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of safety concerns, said the gunmen left women behind and that six workers were later released.

The Dutch Foreign Ministry said three Iraqi security guards at its embassy building in Baghdad were kidnapped along with the Red Crescent employees, and that one was later released. The embassy is next to the offices of the Iraqi aid group.

The Red Crescent, part of the international Red Cross movement, has around 1,000 staff members and some 200,000 volunteers in Iraq.

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