Foreigners seized as gunmen storm house in Baghdad

American artillery pounded suspected rebel positions in Fallujah, and residents reported fresh air and artillery attacks there last night.

But prime minister Ayad Allawi came under new pressure, this time from Iraq’s president, to forego on all-out American assault on Fallujah and other Sunni strongholds. US and Iraqi officials hope to curb the uprising in time for national elections in January.

The abducted American, who was not identified, was the 12th US citizen reported kidnapped or missing in Iraq. He was grabbed about 500 yards from the house where two Americans and Briton Ken Bigley were kidnapped last month. All three were beheaded.

The dramatic abduction occurred two days after the decapitated body of Japanese backpacker Shosei Koda was found in western Baghdad. The al-Qaida-affiliated movement of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for his kidnapping.

Police Lt Col Maan Khalaf said the heavily-armed kidnappers arrived in three cars around iftar, the traditional sunset meal which Muslims eat to break their daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan.

The kidnappers stormed the two-storey house, surrounded by an outer wall with iron bars, in a hail of gunfire and forced the victims to leave with them. There were conflicting reports on the number taken but interior ministry spokesman Col Adnan Abdul-Rahman said they were one American, a Nepalese and four Iraqis.

“We heard gunfire. I went outside to see what’s going on when a man pointed a machine gun at me and said: 'Get in or else I’ll shoot at you’,” said Haidar Karar, who lives nearby.

From his house, Karar saw “at least 20 attackers, some masked and some not”. He said some were wearing traditional Arab robes and all were carrying automatic weapons.

More than 160 foreigners have been abducted this year by militants with political demands or by criminals seeking ransom. At least 33 captives have been killed – several of them by al-Zarqawi’s group, which is believed to be based in Fallujah.

By comparison, more than 152 Iraqis were kidnapped in October alone, the highest number recorded in a single month since the US occupation began in March 2003, according to the interior ministry.

Early yesterday, gunmen fired on a car carrying Baghdad province’s deputy governor, Hatim Kamil, killing him and wounding his two bodyguards. A militant group, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, claimed responsibility.

“This is the fate of whoever is aiding or supporting the crusaders against the Muslims and mujahedeen,” the group said on its website. It was impossible to verify the claim’s authenticity.

Heavy clashes between US forces and rebels continued in Ramadi, a stronghold 70 miles west of Baghdad. A bomb on Sunday killed one US Marine and wounded four there, the military said.

The latest violence occurred as American troops gear up for a major offensive against Fallujah, the strongest bastion of Sunni fighters, about 40 miles west of the capital. The order to launch the assault must come from Allawi, the Iraqi prime minister, who warned on Sunday that his patience with negotiations was thinning.

However, Allawi, a Shiite Muslim, faces strong opposition to such an attack within the Sunni minority.

In an interview published yesterday by the Kuwaiti daily Al-Qabas, interim president Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni, said he disagreed “with those who believe a military attack is necessary”.

“The way the coalition is managing the crisis is wrong,” al-Yawer said. “It is as if someone shot his horse in the head to kill a fly that landed on it. The fly flies away and the horse dies.”

Allawi has given no deadline for an attack on Fallujah but has insisted that the city must hand over foreign fighters and permit government forces to assume responsbility for law and order.

The city fell under rebel control after the Bush administration ordered marines to call off their attack against the city in April following a public outcry in Baghdad over reports of hundreds of civilian casualties.