Deputy electricity minister kidnapped in Baghdad

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Gunmen in camouflaged uniforms kidnapped Deputy Electricity Minister Raed al-Hares along with bodyguards in eastern Baghdad on Tuesday, security officials said. The gunmen used nine four-wheel-drive vehicles when they stopped the al-Hares' convoy in the Shiite neighborhood of Talbiya, said police Lt. Ahmed Qassim. Eleven of his guards were kidnapped too, he said. The men were forced into the kidnappers' vehicles and their cars were left behind, he said. The kidnapping occurred three days after gunmen seized Sunni female legislator Tayseer al-Mashhadani in a Shiite area of east Baghdad. She and seven bodyguards are still missing.