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BAGHDAD - Iraq's government said today it was working closely with the British authorities to secure the release of five Britons kidnapped from a government building in Baghdad in a raid blamed on a Shi'ite militia.
The British embassy in Baghdad issued a travel advisory warning British nationals, including security contractors, that "further kidnaps may be planned".
"The Iraqi government has undertaken urgent measures to determine the facts and locate the kidnappers. It is in contact with the British authorities over any developments," the Iraqi government said in a statement.
A special military unit has been set up to help hunt for the Britons -- a computer expert and his four bodyguards who were snatched on Tuesday from inside a Finance Ministry building by dozens of gunmen wearing police uniforms.
"The government condemns this crime and is doing all it can to ensure the immediate release of the kidnapped Britons," the Iraqi government statement said.
A senior Finance Ministry official said the building's guards were being questioned over the raid, in which no shots were fired. Investigators will be trying to establish how the gunmen knew the Britons were in the building.
One of the guards said he had been briefly detained for questioning and then released. He said other colleagues were still being held.
Britons still in Baghdad
The kidnappers of the five Britons seized in Baghdad have not been able to move them out of the city and ongoing searches should lead to where they are being held captive, Iraqi police officials said yesterday.
US, British and Iraqi authorities have made contact with the Mahdi Army, the prime suspects behind the kidnappings, and other Shia as well as Sunni groups, but there has been no acknowledgment from any of the groups that they are holding the Britons.
One faction of the Mahdi Army, based in Najaf, have declared that the ending of 'targeted assassination' of members of the militia by US and British forces will lead to the freeing of the hostages.
However, Iraqi and British officials say there is no evidence that the group knew the whereabouts of the missing Britons.
US and Iraqi forces continued their operations in Sadr City, the vast Shia neighbourhood in Baghdad, in their hunt for the hostages yesterday. The US military said that it had arrested two "members of the secret cell terrorist network", but it was unclear whether the men had any connection with the abductions.
Abdul Zahra al-Suwaidi, a Shia cleric who runs the political office of Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, said his house was raided by American troops at 3 am yesterday morning.
Suawaidi, who insisted he had nothing to do with the kidnapping, said he was sleeping elsewhere as he expected to be targeted.
He claimed his house was badly damaged and a small amount of money taken during the search.
Meanwhile a procession of people, including weeping women, took part in a procession in Sadr City behind the coffins of two men people they said had been killed in an American helicopter attack.
Iraqi police said air to ground fire hit a house and a car in the early hours of the morning killing two elderly people.
The US military, however, denied that there had been any air strikes in the area or that anyone has been killed in the search for the Britons.
- INDEPENDENT, REUTERS
