Four Germans kidnapped in Baghdad

BAGHDAD: Four Germans working for the Iraqi finance ministry were reported kidnapped in Baghdad on Tuesday by men wearing national police uniforms, a security official said.

The men are computer science experts training civil servants at the ministry's information department on Palestine Street in the city centre when 40 police vehicles surrounded the building, he said.

"The ministry is checking the reports of the suspected kidnappings of German citizens in Iraq," a German foreign ministry spokesman in Berlin said.

The four men were taken out at gunpoint and driven off by men wearing the new uniforms of the national police, a heavily-armed paramilitary unit under the interior ministry.

The German ambassador to Baghdad said he had no comment and referred all queries to Berlin. A Western security source, however, described the victims as one expert and three bodyguards.

In 2006, Baghdad went through a rash of kidnappings by large numbers of men wearing military-style uniforms particularly those of the national police. The units were then issued new uniforms to distinguish them from criminals.

It would not be the first time Germans have been captured by gangs operating in Iraq, which is in the grip of a vicious insurgency and sectarian war.