Five Britons kidnapped in Baghdad
Updated on 29 May 2007
Kidnapped in broad daylight - five Britons have been abducted by gunmen who burst into a government building in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
British embassy staff are urgently trying to secure their release.
In what has become an extremely violent day in Iraq, the four security guards and one computer expert were seized in the city centre early this morning.
Kidnappers entered the finance ministry on Palestine Street dressed in police uniforms.
Elsewhere in Baghdad - at least 40 people were killed by bombs. In Tayaran Square - 23 died when a parked minibus packed with explosives blew up in the Amil district - an explosion in a busy market killed 17.
And 10 US soldiers have been killed over the last two days in Diyala province north of Baghdad.
That makes this the deadliest month for American forces since November 2004.
The four bodyguards and the computer analyst they had been detailed to protect were here at the Finance Ministry, outside Baghdad's protected Green Zone. A large group of kidnappers in Iraqi police uniforms took them away.
The tactic using authentic police disguises is now long-established in Iraq. How close protection teams protect against this - a life-threatening questions that nobody here has really answered.
Crimestoppers - Iraqi-style
It may come as a surprise but there is one part of the security work in Iraq which is blossoming - the Crime-stoppers hotline.
Bill Kearney, who has managed the training of Iraqi police for the past two and a half years, says hundreds of people are using the phone lines to inform on others.
He said: "It has proved really popular. We get calls from people saying there is a crate of arms in a particular location - things like that.
- Crimestoppers - Iraqi-style
PSD - Private Security Detail - is the main stay of personal protection for foreign workers in Iraq. Canon Andrew White lived with the kidnapped men in Baghdad and is now trying to secure their release.
High-visibility, high-profile, well-armed, operating outside the law of Iraq -- it's easy to see why private security guards are high-value hostages -- in Fallujah in 2003, three American guards were kidnapped, killed and their bodies dragged through the streets and hanged from a bridge.
Garda World Security are a well-known brand name in the security businesses with offices world-wide.
It's reckoned there are 20,000 foreign security guards in Iraq - the biggest foreign armed group after the US army... Here's how just one of them sees his job.
Baghdad this morning -- it was not just a bad day for the British. At least 40 Iraqi civilians were killed in two large vehicle bombs in the city. As usual they had been detonated in crowded areas of Baghdad, designed to inflict as many deaths and maim as many civilians as possible.
And for America -- this is now the bloodiest month since November 2004. The US army confirming today that ten more soldiers have been killed -- that's now 114 dead this month alone.
