BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen wearing Iraqi police commando uniforms kidnapped up to 150 staff and visitors in a lightning raid on a government research institute in downtown Baghdad on Tuesday, the largest mass abduction since the start of the U.S. occupation.
Iraq's higher education minister instantly ordered all universities closed until security improvements are made, saying he was "not ready to see more professors get killed.
"I have only one choice which is to suspend classes at universities. We have no other choice," Abed Theyab said in an address to parliament.
Alaa Makki, head of the parliament's education committee, interrupted the body's session to say that between 100 and 150 people, both Shiites and Sunnis, had been abducted in the 9:30 a.m. raid.
He urged the prime minister and ministers of interior and defense to respond rapidly to what he called a "national catastrophe."
The kidnapping is the largest of any group since about 50 people taken from the offices of a private security company in March. Their fate remains unknown.
"It was quick operation. It took about 10 to 15 minutes," Theyab said. "It was a four-story building and the gunmen went to the four stories."
Makki said the gunmen had a list of names of those to be taken and claimed to be on a mission from the government's anti-corruption body. Those kidnapped included the institute's deputy general directors, employees, and visitors, he said. .....
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