Gunmen kidnap Iraq Olympic chief and 30 others

Gunmen kidnap Iraq Olympic chief and 30 others

Tweet

Print Share

 

Also In The News

St Helens continue charge in Super League
Super League leaders St Helens continued their devastating form with a 30-24 home win over Harlequins in Brian McDermott's first game in charge for the visitors.

• Gatlin pulls out of Powell showdown
• McGrath ton gives Yorkshire edge against Durham
• Villa players blast chairman Ellis

 

Saturday, 15, Jul 2006 07:42

Gunmen have taken between 30 and 50 hostages in Iraq after storming the country's Olympic committee meeting, with the delegation's chief among those kidnapped.

Police sources indicate that men wearing army uniforms broke into one of Baghdad's major conference centres where the meeting was taken place, before ordering Ahmed al-Hadjiya and other committee members into a convoy that fled the scene.

Initial reports suggest that along with Mr al-Hadjiya, 21 bodyguards and 30 athletes were taken hostage, although conflicting accounts said that it was the committee's own convoy that was hijacked by gunmen.

No further details are yet known, but in the past Iraqi police have reported large-scale kidnappings only for separate security agencies to disclose that they were in fact arrests.