BAGHDAD, July 31: Armed men in Iraqi national police uniforms kidnapped 26 people on Monday from the Iraqi-American Chamber of Commerce and Industry and from a neighbouring company, officials said.

The brazen raids came after a morning of violence across the country left at least 16 people dead, including two senior officers from the military and intelligence services.

Riding in 15 jeeps of a kind used by police, the kidnappers descended on Al-Arassat Street in the commercial heart of Baghdad and led away the head of the chamber of commerce and 10 co-workers, an interior ministry source said. The group also took away 15 workers from a nearby office of the Al-Rawi company which sells mobile telephones, he added.

The raid took place at midday on a busy street. There was no indication that any Americans were among those taken.

“I saw police cars without number plates come up to the office,” a guard from a building across the street said. “They separated women employees and took only men. They took some guards, workers and the manager.”

Another guard said ordinary customers of the telephone store were among those loaded into the back of a canvas-roofed truck and taken away and that the total number of captives could be higher than reported. “The whole operation took less than ten minutes,” he said, adding that the head of the business chamber had been beaten.

“When they went in to get him out he was shouting at them. They started beating him until he fell down on the ground. Then they carried him into an SUV and took him away,” the witness said on condition of anonymity.

The not-for-profit IACCI was founded in May 2003 in Los Angeles by a group of exiled Iraqi businessmen and now represents firms seeking to boost trade ties with the United States.

Several recent kidnappings in Iraq have been carried out by groups wearing police or army uniforms, and government ministers admit they are battling to purge the security services of disloyal and corrupt officers.

—AFP