American, Nepali and two Arabs kidnapped in Baghdad

10.00am

BAGHDAD - Gunmen kidnapped an American, a Nepali and two Arab men from their Baghdad office, police said.

"They stormed the villa with automatic rifles and rocket- propelled grenades. They had no chance," said a policeman. A company guard was killed in the attack, he said.

The four worked for Saudi Arabian Trading and Contracting Company (Satco), a Riyadh-based company owned by Saudi and Lebanese businessmen which supplies US forces in Iraq, said executives who know the company.

Iraq's Interior Ministry confirmed the kidnapping, saying the nationality of the Arabs snatched from the villa in Baghdad's affluent Mansour district was not immediately known.

At least 25 foreigners from a dozen countries are thought to be in the hands of kidnappers trying to drive US-led forces and foreign workers from Iraq. Scores of foreigners have been abducted since April, many of them have been freed, but more than 35 have been killed, several of them beheaded.

The last two Americans to be kidnapped in Iraq were beheaded by the militant group led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, which demanded US-led forces free women detainees.

Those American construction contractors, along with a British colleague who was also decapitated, were snatched from their home, also in Mansour.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Monday's kidnapping.

The headless body of a Japanese backpacker kidnapped by Zarqawi's group was found on a Baghdad street on Saturday.

A Bangladeshi and a Sri Lankan truck driver were taken hostage, Al Jazeera television said on Thursday.

On Saturday, kidnappers abducted a Somali driver and looted his truck in Iraq, police in the northern city of Kirkuk said.

An Iraqi-British woman and an Iraqi-Polish woman have also been abducted in the last two weeks.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq