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BAGHDAD - A day after a mass kidnap from a Baghdad ministry raised fears Iraq's sectarian militias are out of control, government leaders gave sharply differing accounts today of whether dozens of hostages were still missing.
The minister whose staff were targeted said up to 80 were still unaccounted for, possibly held by Shi'ite militia, and said he would boycott the government until they were released.
But the spokesman for the government, which appears keen to play down the incident, said only two to five were missing.
"I have suspended my participation as a minister with the government until those people who have been kidnapped are released," Higher Education Minister Abd Dhiab told Reuters.
He is one of a handful of ministers from the once dominant Sunni Arab minority in the US-sponsored national unity government led by Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
"If I can't save and protect the lives of the people in my ministry, whether professors or employees or students, there is no use my staying in the ministry."
He said 27 employees had been released as well as a number of people who were visiting the ministry annexe when gunmen in police uniform rounded up all the men present and drove them off toward the Shi'ite bastion of Sadr City in broad daylight.
"Around 70 or 80 still being held," Dhiab said.
However, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the 37 people who had been freed accounted for nearly all of those taken -- only a few, perhaps two to five, were still missing.
He said the Higher Education Ministry was mistaken in saying that about 100 people were initially abducted and put the total number of hostages hauled away on Tuesday at around 40. A lack of records at the ministry meant the figures were approximate.
Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Kareem Khalaf said he could not give a total figure for hostages but hoped to do so soon. He said operations were still under way and security forces were closing in on areas where they suspected the hostages may have been taken. He declined to say where.
Minister Dhiab said he could neither confirm nor deny a report that many hostages were held at a school in Sadr City.
Maliki himself played down the mass kidnap, which has put further strain on his government to disband militias involved in sectarian violence. He said most of the hostages were free.
But employees' families said at least several of their relatives were still missing and they feared for their lives.
Four of those identified by Reuters as still being missing are all Sunnis, while the only person identified as being released, a senior ministry official, is a Shi'ite.
The father of one hostage said: "I'm sure the next place I see him will be the morgue."
However, officials declined to characterise the raid as a Shi'ite militia attack and would not comment on similarities to other such mass kidnappings, when hostages have been segregated according to their religion and either freed or killed.
"What happened was not terrorism, rather it was due to dispute and conflict between militias from one side or another," Maliki said in televised remarks. He later said the government's response had been strong and vowed to catch those responsible.
Under pressure from Washington to disband militias, Maliki has insisted the main threat to Iraq's security comes from minority Sunni Arab insurgents and says he will deal with militias loyal to his Shi'ite Islamist allies in his own time.
Senior police officers were detained and quizzed over the raid, the latest such kidnap carried out by gunmen in police uniform in which complicity is suspected between the security forces and sectarian Shi'ite militia groups.
In a speech at Baghdad University, apparently timed to allay academics' fears for their security, Maliki said universities would remain open and should be free of sectarian influence.
"Most of the hostages have been released and we will pursue those who were behind this," Maliki said.
The White House, determined to build up Iraq's security forces so it can hand over responsibility for security, will be looking for an explanation of what happened as it reviews strategy under domestic pressure to bring US troops home.
- REUTERS
