Brazen kidnapping
The week's news at a glance.
Baghdad
Dozens of armed men dressed as police abducted more than 100 Iraqis from an Education Ministry building in Baghdad this week. Witnesses said the gunmen spared the women and the Shiite men, but bundled all the Sunni men into vans and drove them away, as real police looked on without interfering. It was the biggest mass kidnapping since the U.S. invasion, and it shocked the Iraqi government. "All Interior Ministry forces are on alert, searching for this group," said Abd al-Karim Khalaf, Interior Ministry spokesman. "We don't know if it's terrorists, militias, or even government forces." The Education Ministry closed all universities until further notice.
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