Baghdad airport official kidnapped
A senior Baghdad International Airport official was abducted today by gunmen, along with his driver and another companion, police said.
Mahir Yassin, director of the communication department at Baghdad airport, was kidnapped from Baghdad’s western Mansour neighbourhood on his way to work by assailants in two cars, said police Lt Saad Jawad.
The exclusive, largely residential neighbourhood, home to many foreign embassies, was the site of last week’s abduction of two Algerian diplomats.
In a video released yesterday, Iraq’s most feared terror group, al Qaida in Iraq, said it had condemned to death Algerian diplomats Ali Belaroussi and Azzedine Belkadi.
The group had purportedly said yesterday in an internet statement that it would kill the two men, who were shown blindfolded, but there was no word on whether the threat had been carried out.
In a brief written statement introducing the video, the group said an al-Qaida “court” decided to carry out God’s verdict against the two diplomats from the apostate Algerian government … and ordered to kill them,” said the statement, posted and signed by Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, an al-Qaida spokesman.
“This will be the fate of the other diplomats and representatives of the rest of the infidel governments. There is no destiny for them except being killed,” the statement said.
Two people have been detained in connection with the kidnapping, the Interior Ministry said earlier this week.
The terror group led by Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has also claimed responsibility for attacking three other key diplomats from Islamic countries and abducting Egyptian envoy Ihab al-Sherif.
