14 police missing north of Baghdad -police source

BAGHDAD, Mar 2 (Reuters) Fourteen Iraqi police from a rapid reaction force based in Diyala province north of Baghdad went missing after leaving their base on Thursday to go on leave, a police source in Diyala said today.

Earlier, an al Qaeda-linked group in Iraq said in an Internet statement it had kidnapped 18 people working for the Interior Ministry in Diyala province, saying it was in revenge for a reported rape of a woman by police.

The Diyala police source said the 14 men, including a high ranking officer, left their base in western Baquba around 1330 ist to return to their homes in an area called Saadiyet al Shat, north of Baquba.

''Since then nobody has seen them. Their families are calling them, but nobody can reach them,'' the source said, adding that they were in civilian cars to avoid attention.

The web statement included several photographs showing 18 men, some in uniform and some in civilian clothing, blindfolded in a room. Some of the men had what appeared to be identity papers pinned to their shirts but it was not possible to read them.

''God enabled a group of lions of the Islamic State in Iraq to detain 18 affiliates of the Interior Ministry in Diyala province,'' said the statement posted on a Web site often used by radical Islamist groups.

''This blessed operation came in response to what these apostates are doing in fighting the Sunni folk and the last such act by these treacherous agencies was the rape of our sister ...

Sabreen Janabi.'' Janabi was at the centre of a row last month after saying she was raped by police officers from the Shi'ite-dominated police force. The government denied her claims, producing medical records it said showed she was not raped. A major Sunni political party later said she was Shi'ite, not Sunni.

Officials at the Interior Ministry in Baghdad said they had no information on reports of the kidnapping.

REUTERS SP KP1503