Money, not politics, led to kidnapping, says official

BAGHDAD - "What happened? What do you want?" asked a terrified Giuliana Sgrena as heavily armed kidnappers dragged her into their car close to Baghdad University.

Sgrena, a correspondent for left-wing newspaper Il Manifesto, is the latest journalist to be seized in Iraq, where highly organised gangs have discovered they can extort millions of dollars in ransoms by kidnapping foreigners.

An ultimatum posted on an Islamic militant website by the so-called Islamic Jihad Organisation claimed to have carried out the kidnapping and issued a 72-hour ultimatum demanding that Italy withdraw its 3000 troops from Iraq.

Dr Sabah Kadhim, spokesman of the Interior Ministry in Baghdad, is scornful of the kidnappers' political demands. "I have no doubt whatsoever it was done for money," he said.

"The kidnap gangs have realised that there is a lot of money to be made."

The gangs struck again in Baghdad on Sunday when they abducted four Egyptians working for local cellphone company Iraqna, a subsidiary of Egyptian company Orascom Telecommunications.

The kidnapping of Sgrena and of Florence Aubenas, a correspondent for French newspaper Liberation, on January 5 had a lot in common, Kadhim said. In both cases the journalists believed they had interviews with Islamic religious leaders.

The Italian journalist was seized near the al-Mustafa mosque, the light-blue dome of which rises above the tents of refugees from Fallujah, the insurgent stronghold captured by US Marines after a bloody assault last November.

"She was supposed to meet a cleric called Hussein from Fallujah," said Kadhim.

"She waited for him from 10am to 1.30pm. A foreigner in a public place for that long is vulnerable. All it takes is one person with a mobile to phone a kidnap gang.

"I blame the Iraqis with her, her translator and driver, for not warning her of the danger."

The disappearance of Aubenas is more mysterious. She waited in the morning outside the Council of Ministers in Baghdad.

She also had an appointment with a cleric, from Taji just north of the capital, but it is not clear if she went there. She may have been seized earlier along with her translator in the Karada district in Baghdad.

The kidnapping of Sgrena was well-planned. It took place on a Friday, the day of prayer, when gangsters know security may be lax.

Iraqi security forces are in any case exhausted from supervising the election.

Eight gunmen in two cars caught up with Sgrena as her car was driving away from the mosque.

A grey vehicle blocked her car and a man with a pistol opened the door.

Sgrena's translator said he tried to drag her away, "but the man hit me with the butt of his pistol".

"The rest of the men came and dragged her away. She didn't resist. She was very scared. She looked shocked and surprised."

Meanwhile the first gunman was hitting the translator, shouting: "Coward, coward."

The translator pleaded: "I have children. Don't kill me."

He was also pushed into a car but fled in the confusion when university guards opened fire and the kidnappers shot back.

Kadhim admits that police intelligence is not good enough to hold out much hope of finding the kidnappers.

- INDEPENDENT