BAGHDAD, July 15: About 50 gunmen swooped down on a Baghdad club on Saturday and kidnapped Iraq’s Olympic committee chief and dozens of others as parliament extended the state of emergency across most parts of the country.
Committee president Ahmed al-Hejea, along with secretary-general Amr Abdel Jabbar, head of Iraq’s Tae Kwon Do federation Jamal Abdel Karim, head of water sports Saeb al-Hakim and dozens of security guards were abducted in a bold daylight operation that took just a few minutes.
Dressed in military uniforms, the gunmen stormed the oil ministry’s cultural centre, a club in the middle-class neighbourhood of Karrada, where the group was meeting, said committee member Hussein al-Amidi.
The security guards at the club were no match for the attackers, who killed two guards and wounded four in the attack.
“The armed men burst into the room, made everyone lie on the floor and threatened to kill them if they moved,” Mr Hejea’s secretary, Mohammed al-Habash, said.
The gunmen then grabbed Mr Hejea and several others, including members of the Facility Protection Service (FPS), who had been guarding the premises.
“We know now that they have taken some 20 bodyguards and members of the FPS,” Mr Habash said.
The brazen operation raised questions about whether the raid was officially sanctioned.
But Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said ‘as far as I know, there was no interior ministry order or arrest warrant against these people’.
In May, 15 members of the national Tae Kwon Do team were kidnapped as they drove back from a tournament in Jordan through Anbar province in the restive west of the country. Their fate remains unknown.
EMERGENCY EXTENDED: Iraqi parliament voted on Saturday to extend the state of emergency for 30 days across most parts of the country, except in the three Kurdish provinces in the north.
Baghdad remains volatile despite a massive security crackdown imposed since last month.
The residents woke up to sounds of gunfire and explosions as Iraqi security forces carried out raids.
The defence ministry said two civilians were killed and four wounded in clashes between the Iraqi army and insurgents on Haifa street, not far from the heavily fortified Green Zone, the seat of the Iraqi government.
Seven suspects were arrested.
In the northern Sunni neighbourhood of Adhamiyah, known as a guerilla stronghold, another early morning Iraqi army operation netted 45 suspects.
Police in the central Baghdad Fadhel neighbourhood said one civilian was killed and seven wounded in clashes with guerillas. And a suicide car bomb in the capital eastern suburb of Baghdad Jadida killed two people.
Bolani said the Baghdad security plan was ‘very flexible and open to review’, but added that criminals were using new techniques such as ‘kidnapping people and then using their cars and exploding them’.
A western diplomat told journalists that operations were also conducted early on Saturday against a senior figure linked to firebrand Shia leader Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia.
Baghdad has been the scene of several major outbreaks of sectarian violence over the past week that has claimed over 100 lives. Some incidents have been blamed on Shia militias.
Most dramatic was an assault on the neighbourhood of Jihad by masked gunmen that resulted in more than 40 deaths.
“The incident of Jihad serves a clear reminder that things can get worse but it will also sharpen efforts,” said the diplomat.
“What Iraqis are trying to do is to go after people who are operating violently outside the law — it does not matter whether they are militias or criminals,” she said, adding that some were using police uniforms and vehicles.—AFP
