Gunmen kidnap senior Iraq finance ministry official

BAGHDAD, May 18 (Reuters) Gunmen have kidnapped a senior Iraqi Finance Ministry official in Baghdad, Interior Ministry sources said today.

Muhib Abdul-Razzak, director-general of the ministry's auditing department, was snatched from his home in northern Baghdad on Sunday.

''The kidnappers were wearing Iraqi military uniforms and his whereabouts are unknown,'' one source said.

Thousands of Iraqis have been kidnapped by insurgents, militias and criminal gangs since US-forces invaded to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003. Many of them are released after a ransom is paid.

A Finance Ministry official said yesterday that Abdul-Razzak's body had turned up at the Baghdad morgue, but several other ministry officials denied this today.

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