Iraq blames Shiite militia for kidnapping Britons

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2007

BAGHDAD (AFP) — American forces raided Shiite militia strongholds in eastern Baghdad on Wednesday after the brazen daylight kidnapping of five British contractors from a finance ministry building.

The Britons -- a consultant and his four armed bodyguards -- were snatched on Tuesday by a large group of gunmen in Iraqi police uniforms, with the finger of suspicion being pointed at Shiite militias.

"We are pursuing this case very vigorously, I would say, because the nature of this kidnapping is very strange," Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told AFP.

"The location of this finance ministry computer centre and the nature of the operation and the number of people involved, I think all indicate more a militia than a terrorist group, let's say," he added.

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