Iraq oil minister says gunmen kidnap his deputy

BAGHDAD, Aug 16 (Reuters) Iraq's oil minister said today that his deputy was kidnapped along with four senior officials in a ''sophisticated'' operation.

''Two days ago a large armed group with an estimated 100 gunmen ... forcibly broke into the oil marketing company and kidnapped deputy minister Abdul Jabbar al-Wagga and four other ministry employees,'' Hussain al-Shahristani told reporters.

Shahristani said it appeared the kidnapping was politically motivated.

''There are political motives behind the kidnapping operation to send the government a message at a tough time that they have the ability to hamper a vital sector and challenge the government,'' he said.

Wagga, a Shi'ite, was snatched with four senior employees when the gunmen, wearing Iraqi security forces uniforms, stormed into the state oil marketing organisation's building on Tuesday.

Shahristani said the men were carrying ''sophisticated'' weapons. They drove government vehicles and spoke in English as they convinced guards to let them enter in what he described as a serious breach of security committed by ''enemies of Iraq.'' He said the idnapping appeared to be an attempt to derail the government's security crackdown as it attempts to avert an all-out sectarian civil war between Iraq's Shi'ite majority and minority Sunni Arabs.

Tens of thousands of extra US and Iraqi troops are engaged in the crackdown, an attempt to buy time for Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's fractured government to reach a series of political benchmarks set by Washington.

Foremost among the benchmarks is a revenue-sharing oil law.

''They want Iraq to be desperate and submit to the return of former regimes,'' Shahristani said.

He said security forces had some indication of where the kidnapped men might be held.

''The rescue operations are continuing day and night,'' Shahristani said.

REUTERS SV RN1842