Mehdi Army suspected in Baghdad kidnap, says Zebari

LONDON, May 30 (Reuters) Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said today that Shi'ite Mehdi Army militias were most likely to have been behind the kidnapping of five Britons in Baghdad, probably assisted by local police.

Gunmen in police uniforms kidnapped the five from the Iraqi finance ministry computer centre yesterday.

The Canadian-based security firm GardaWorld said four of its British security guards and their client were taken. A ministry official who witnessed the kidnapping said gunmen entered the room led by a man wearing a police major's uniform.

Zebari told BBC radio he suspected the Mehdi Army, which controls the area of Baghdad where the kidnapping took place.

''The location is of interest to everybody,'' he said. ''It's near Sadr City, which is a Shia dominated area controlled mainly by ... the Mehdi Army, who have been very active there.'' ''The number of people who were involved in the operation to seal off the building, to set roadblocks and to get into the building with such confidence must have some connections.'' Zebari described the raid -- the first reported kidnapping of foreigners since a Baghdad security plan began in February and the first time Westerners have been taken from inside a government building -- as a ''sophisticated operation''.

''There must be some unholy, unruly militias working beyond the law in that area, with this connection with the local police, to be able kidnap these people,'' he said.

A British foreign office spokesman declined to give details of those who were kidnapped and said he had no information about whether any contact had been made with the kidnappers.

''The British embassy in Baghdad will continue their urgent contacts with the Iraqi authorities to establish the facts and try and secure a swift resolution.'' he said.

Kidnappings in Baghdad are a daily occurrence, usually motivated by money or politics. More than 200 foreigners and thousands of Iraqis have been snatched since the 2003 US invasion, although there has been a recent lull in the seizure of foreigners.

Andrew White, an Anglican vicar in Baghdad who knew the men kidnapped yesterday, said he had been in contact with the Mehdi Army and suspected the kidnap was carried out in revenge for the killing last week of a leading figure from the militia group by British troops in Basra, southern Iraq.

''We now see that there is very likely a connection between these two,'' he said.

Zebari said yesterday's kidnapping highlighted the persistent problem of infiltration of Iraqi security forces by militias.

''It has been a known fact for some time that the interior ministry police, security units and forces are corrupt, are penetrated,'' he said. ''This issue is a very serious, challenging fact to the government itself.'' REUTERS LPB VV1459