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| Gunmen seize 100 at Iraq ministry | Gunmen seize 100 at Iraq ministry |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| Gunmen in military-style uniforms have kidnapped more than 100 men from a research institute belonging to Iraq's higher education ministry. | |
| A ministry spokeswoman said the gunmen arrived in new pick-up vehicles and stormed the ministry's Research Directorate in central Baghdad. | A ministry spokeswoman said the gunmen arrived in new pick-up vehicles and stormed the ministry's Research Directorate in central Baghdad. |
| They ordered women into one room and seized the men, including employees, guards and visitors to the building. | They ordered women into one room and seized the men, including employees, guards and visitors to the building. |
| Academics and researchers have been frequent targets of violence in Iraq. | Academics and researchers have been frequent targets of violence in Iraq. |
| Correspondents say many Iraqis believe mass kidnappings like this latest incident are committed by members of the Shia Muslim-dominated security forces or take place with their collusion. | |
| The head of the parliamentary education committee, Alaa Makki, said the abductees had been both Shias and Sunnis. | |
| Mr Makki interrupted a televised parliamentary session with the news and urged the prime minister and interior and defence ministers to respond rapidly to what he called a "national catastrophe". | |
| Eyewitnesses say the gunmen closed off roads around the institute in Karrada district and took away their captives in handcuffs. | |
| The higher education minister is a member of main Sunni Arab political bloc in Iraq - where most ministries are fiefdoms of the various sectarian groups. |