Gunmen kidnap Red Crescent aid workers

Gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms burst into Iraqi Red Crescent offices on Dec. 17 and kidnapped two dozen employees and visitors at the humanitarian organization in the latest sign of the country's growing lawlessness. Gunmen in five pickup trucks pulled up at the office of the Iraqi Red Crescent in downtown Baghdad and abducted 20 to 30 employees and visitors, the aid group and police said. A Red Crescent official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of safety concerns, said the gunmen left women behind. Mazin Abdellaha, the secretary-general of the Iraqi Red Crescent, appealed to the kidnappers to release the captives. "They represent a humanitarian agency that works for the general good, and this agency helps all people regardless of their sect or ethnicity," Abdellaha said. The kidnapping came only days after a similar incident in Sanak, one of Baghdad's busiest commercial districts. On Dec. 14, gunmen in camouflage uniforms drove up in 11 cars and surrounded the area, just around the corner from an Iraqi police checkpoint. They casually went from business to business, spending 30 minutes rounding up at least 25 shopkeepers, witnesses said. At least half a dozen mass kidnappings have been carried out in the Iraqi capital this year, possibly by armed groups linked to the sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shiites.