BAGHDAD, 25 July 2004 — Iraq and Egypt tried to secure the release of a senior Egyptian diplomat yesterday after he was snatched in a brazen kidnapping while leaving a mosque — the first envoy to be taken hostage in a growing wave of abductions.
Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi urged Cairo not to pander to the kidnappers, who seized Egyptian diplomat Mohamed Mamdouh Qutb on Friday afternoon in Baghdad after reports Cairo might consider helping Iraq with security.
Qutb is the No. 3 in Egypt’s mission in Baghdad. “We are involved in intense talks to try to secure his release,” a source at the Egyptian Embassy said. “We were so shocked. He’s a very decent and religious man.”
The kidnapping of a well-protected diplomat outside a busy place of worship is a step up in sophistication for militants and sharply raises the stakes in Iraq’s weeks-long series of abductions, which have mostly involved foreign truck drivers.
Yesterday, the chief of Iraq’s Al-Mansour Construction Company, a state-owned firm, was kidnapped as he drove to work in Baghdad. Raad Adnan Mahmoud was also director-general of Iraq’s Housing and Construction Ministry. Mahmoud’s kidnappers have not made any demands so far.
In another hostage standoff, a group which has threatened to behead seven foreign truck drivers issued a new 48-hour deadline to the Kuwaiti company that employs them, demanding Iraqi prisoners be freed from Kuwaiti and US jails — a demand that is impossible for the company to meet.
Al-Jazeera TV on Friday broadcast pictures of Egyptian diplomat Qutb sitting in front of six hooded and armed men from a group calling itself the “Lions of God Battalions in Iraq”. The group said the abduction was in response to Egyptian comments that Cairo was ready to offer its security experience to the Iraqi government, the Arabic satellite station said.
Allawi visited Cairo this week and discussed the possibility of using Egyptian troops in training Iraq’s forces. But Egyptian officials were quick to emphasize that no deal was struck. Qutb’s abduction came four days after he was widely photographed celebrating the release of an Egyptian truck driver kidnapped by insurgents earlier this month. The driver was freed after his Saudi employer promised to pull out of Iraq.
Militants have seized dozens of foreign workers since April to push demands for foreign troops or foreign companies to leave Iraq. Several hostages have been killed and in at least two cases the hostage-takers’ demands have been met.
Kidnappings have been common since the US-led invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein, but in the early months they appeared mostly to be criminally motivated, with ransom payments sought.
Earlier this week, three Indians, three Kenyans and an Egyptian, all drivers working for a Kuwaiti firm, were seized.
The Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company said it would not stop operating in Iraq as the kidnappers were demanding.
India’s Foreign Minister Natwar Singh said yesterday he was optimistic the Indians would be freed. “The group is not a political one...these are only some irresponsible men who kidnap people to make money,” he said.
With some hostage-takers’ demands being met, there appears little chance the wave of kidnappings will subside.
— Additional input from agencies
