Sudan: 6 nationals have been kidnapped in Iraq

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Two pan-Arab satellite television channels say a diplomat and five other Sudanese have been kidnapped in Iraq. The Iraqi Foreign Ministry said it was not aware of the abduction. A Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman appealed for their release in an interview with the Qatari-based Al-Jazeera. The undersecretary at the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, Labeed Abbawi, told The Associated Press in a phone interview that the ministry had not heard of such an abduction. The Al-Jazeera Web site did not give details about where and when the six nationals were seized. But the scrollbar on the rival Al-Arabiya channel said they were abducted in Baghdad. There was no immediate word on the abduction from the Sudanese Embassy in Baghdad. The Al-Jazeera Web site report was sourced to unidentified "official sources in Khartoum," the Sudanese capital. Gunmen have kidnapped more than 240 foreigners and killed at least 39 since the Iraqi insurgency began after US-led forces overthrew Saddam Hussein in April 2003.