Gunmen kidnap Iraq's Olympic leader, 30 workers

[Janice]

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The head of Iraq's Olympic Committee, Ahmad el Kijiye, was kidnapped Saturday along with at least 30 of his co-workers by gunmen dressed in army uniforms, Iraqi police said.

The kidnapping happened in a Shiite neighborhood of central Baghdad as they were leaving a meeting at a cultural center, police said.

The gunmen were riding in three government vehicles, police Lt. Thaer Mahmoud told The Associated Press.

The kidnappings come a day after Iraq's national wrestling team pulled out of a tournament in the United Arab Emirates when its coach was killed in Baghdad.

The Sunni coach, Mohammed Karim Abid Sahib, was seized with one of his wrestlers as they left the sports center in the northern neighborhood of Kazimiyah. AP reported.

He was shot to death while trying to escape.

Meanwhile, two mortars landed outside an Iraqi police administration building in northern Baghdad, killing five civilians and wounding 12 others, police said.

The building, in the Iraqi capital's Sadiya section, is where Iraqi police go to be paid and get their uniforms, police said.

No police officers were hurt, police said.

Also Saturday, a roadside bomb on killed a U.S. soldier in Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement.

"A Multi-National Division - Baghdad service member died at approximately 11:25 a.m. today when the vehicle he was riding in struck a roadside bomb near Sadr City, an area in northeast Baghdad," the statement said.

This brings the number of U.S. military fatalities in the Iraq war to 2,546.

On Friday, bombs killed eight people in Baghdad, including seven at Ismail Al-Qubaisi Mosque after prayers. Five people were wounded.

In separate incidents, two bombs targeted civilians and another targeted a police patrol near the Technical Institute in the southern neighborhood of Zafaraniya.

One person was killed, four others wounded in the two bombings. Three officers and two civilians were killed in the police patrol attack.

South of Kirkuk, gunmen attacked a checkpoint, killing 12 Iraqi Army soldiers, including an officer, police said.

Two more soldiers were critically wounded in the attack, which took place at the first checkpoint on the road from Kirkuk to Tikrit, Kirkuk police said.

Police were attempting to interview one of the injured soldiers to obtain more information on the attack.

[Skywatch_NC]

Wonder where these disguised thugs get the uniforms...some kind of surplus depot...?

[TexasStooge]

They know kidnapping people (Olympic leader, President, or otherwise) can't solve their problems.

[Janice]

They steal them or buy them. Maybe they buy them from Ebay

[stormtruth]

From what I have read sometimes the Iraqis trained by us to be part of the Iraqi military are actualy insurgents. That would explain why they have easy access to the uniforms and why the problems in Iraq are so difficult to solve.

[sunny]

From what I have read sometimes the Iraqis trained by us to be part of the Iraqi military are actualy insurgents. That would explain why they have easy access to the uniforms and why the problems in Iraq are so difficult to solve.

The Iraqi military also have their lives and the lives of their families threatened if they do not provide information....