Read who abducted the 5 British "contractors" in Iraq last month

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Implications of five Britons' fate in Iraq

Published Date: June 04, 2007

British newspaper The Guardian reported June 1 that the United Kingdom's crisis response cell, COBRA, has raised the possibility of asking Iran for help locating five Britons kidnapped in Baghdad, Iraq, because of Tehran's close ties to Iraq's Shiite. Meanwhile, US and Iraqi forces are focusing on the Shiite slum Sadr City, a stronghold of radical Shiite leader Muqtada Al-Sadr's Mehdi Army, in their search for the five contractors. The victims - a computer expert and four bodyguards - were taken May 30 from the Iraqi Finance Ministry in broad daylight by gunmen in official Iraqi security forces uniforms.

Despite some claims that Sunni insurgents were behind the kidnapping, the use of security forces' uniforms, the brazen nature of the operation and search efforts focused on Sadr City all indicate that Al-Sadr's Mehdi Army is the most likely suspect. The main possible motive for the abduction is retaliation for the May 25 killing of Abu Qader, also known as Wissam Al-Waili, former Mehdi Army chief in Basra. Al-Waili reportedly was killed by Iraqi forces as they tried to arrest him, but sources close to the Mehdi Army claim he was killed by British troops.

The kidnappers planned and executed their operation well - reportedly, not a single shot was fired. According to eyewitness accounts and an official Finance Ministry report, four men in civilian clothes scouted the Finance Ministry's information office on Palestine Street 15 minutes before the abduction. The operation began when approximately 40 gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms and the newly designed uniforms of the Iraqi National Police, a heavily armed paramilitary unit under the Interior Ministry, sealed off the street at both ends. (The Iraqi National Police, incidentally, were issued new uniforms because too many people wearing the old uniforms were carrying out kidnappings.)

The kidnappers then walked past more than a dozen Finance Ministry guards, who offered no resistance, and stormed the building. The gunmen took the hostages away in a convoy of more than a dozen four-wheel drive vehicles, in the direction of Sadr City. The kidnapped bodyguards apparently made no effort to resist or escape. This could have been due to inadequate security planning and preparation on their part, or they could have been taken by surprise if their hosts at the Finance Ministry sold them out. (The abductors reportedly went straight to the room where the contractors were.)

The brazen nature of the kidnapping - a major operation during the day in the heart of Baghdad - and the use of police uniforms indicates that the Interior Ministry's security apparatus colluded on, or at least did not interfere with, the abductions.