Gunmen who kidnapped 30 people at a Red Crescent office in Baghdad on Sunday have freed 17 hostages, an official of the humanitarian group said on Monday.
Maazen Abdulla, secretary-general of the Iraqi Red Crescent, said the victims were released unharmed in different parts of Baghdad on Sunday and Monday.
”Most of them are employees of the Red Crescent,” Abdulla told Reuters. He said two Iraqi security guards who work at the Dutch embassy adjacent to the Red Crescent offices were among those released.
In the latest mass kidnapping that highlighted lawlessness in Baghdad, gunmen wearing police uniforms stormed the branch of the Red Crescent office in central Karrada, separated men from women and took off with their hostages.
Iraq’s capital is plagued by daily kidnappings, many of which are carried out by armed groups on either side of the communal conflict between majority Shi’ites and Sunni Arabs.
The Red Crescent, which works with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), has said it has felt pressure from militant groups, but Abdulla said he did not know why the organisation’s employees were abducted. The two-storey Red Crescent office is identified by the Red Crescent emblem.
The ICRC has called for the immediate and unconditional release of all the hostages.
”Iraqi Red Crescent workers provide vital help for all Iraqis in need. They do so with devotion and with humanity. They must be respected and supported, not harmed,” ICRC director of operations Pierre Kraehenbuehl said in a statement.
The Iraqi Red Crescent, the only Iraqi aid agency working in Iraq’s 18 provinces, has 1 000 staff and 200 000 volunteers. – Reuters