Gunmen kidnap Iraq senior trade ministry official

Baghdad, Dec 26: Gunmen kidnapped a senior Trade Ministry official in Baghdad today after stopping his vehicle on his way to work, a ministry source said.

Muhanad Ahmed Saleh, director of the Baghdad International Fair, was abducted shortly after he left his home in Amiriya, a Sunni district in western Baghdad.

Baghdad is plagued by kidnappings. Many are political abductions by armed groups on either side of Iraq's Shi'ite-Sunni sectarian violence. Some kidnappings are carried out by criminal gangs seeking extortion money.

Reuters