Iraq Industry Ministry denies police kidnap report

BAGHDAD, July 2 (Reuters) Iraq's Industry Ministry denied police reports that gunmen had abducted a deputy minister from his office today morning.

Police and Interior Ministry sources said gunmen in seven cars entered the ministry compound in Baghdad's central Bab al-Sharji district and abducted a deputy minister. No shots were apparently fired, they said.

But Industry Ministry spokeswoman Hanan Jassim Hamoudi said all three deputy ministers were safe inside the building.

''I have just talked to one of them. The three deputies, Mohammed Abdullah al-Ani, Adil Ahmed and Sami al-Aaraji, are here.

All is quiet,'' she told Reuters.

A guard at the ministry said he had seen seven cars arrive, their occupants flashing Interior Ministry identification cards, but they had not been allowed in.

REUTERS SB RS1347