Gunmen kidnap 14 at Baghdad computer store

BAGHDAD - Gunmen wearing camouflage uniform snatched 14 people from around a computer store in central Baghdad on Monday, an Interior Ministry official said.

The gunmen drove into the area close to the Technology University in seven four-wheel-drive vehicles of a type commonly used by Iraqi security forces, the official added.

It was the latest of many mass kidnappings, some driven by sectarian hatred but many also motivated by ransom demands - 26 workers were seized on Sunday from a meat processing factory in the capital. There was no word on their fate on Monday.

Many kidnap victims end up among dozens of corpses found tortured and bound around the city, part of violence that is claiming as many as 100 lives a day, according to the United Nations.

Some kidnap gangs operate within the police, US and Iraqi officials say. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has vowed to crack down on crime gangs and militias that operate with the blessing of parties within his national unity government.

- REUTERS