Gunmen in camouflage uniforms kidnapped about 30 Iraqis in Baghdad today in a brazen daylight attack that underlined the threat from sectarian death squads which a top US general said must be reined in.
"We have to change the dynamics that are going on in Baghdad. There is a lot of sectarian murder in Baghdad," Lieutenant-General Raymond Odierno said at a ceremony where he officially assumed day-to-day control of US troops in Iraq .
Iraqi police said gunmen travelling in 10 government cars and three pickup trucks descended on Sinak, an area in central Baghdad where car parts and agricultural equipment are sold, and rounded up about 30 shopkeepers and bystanders.
The gunmen did not appear to target any specific sectarian group, abducting both Shia and Sunni Muslims, police said.
"A number of army vehicles entered the car market and they took around 30 people and shot randomly at the people. They were wearing army uniforms," witness Abu Jassim said.
The Iraqi capital is plagued by daily kidnappings, both political and criminal. In one of the biggest cases, men in camouflage uniforms abducted dozens of staff and visitors from the Higher Education Ministry last month. The ministry said today that 56 were still officially recorded as missing.
Minority Sunni leaders accuse Shia militias of infiltrating the police to carry out kidnappings and killings.
In Khallisa, a religiously mixed town 30 km (19 miles) south of Baghdad, police found the bodies of 15 men near an irrigation canal in a date palm grove. All had been tortured and shot.