BAGHDAD — Hundreds of U.S. and Iraqi troops raided Baghdad's Sadr City slum Wednesday, a day after five British citizens were kidnapped from a nearby government building in an assault that the Iraqi foreign minister said had the hallmarks of a militia strike.
Two Iraqis working for the U.S. Embassy were reported kidnapped Wednesday, and at least 48 Iraqis were killed or found slain in other violence. Among them were two journalists.
The U.S. military reported the deaths of two soldiers in a roadside bombing Wednesday, and the noncombat death of a soldier Tuesday. At least 3,470 U.S. troops have been killed since the start of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to icasualties.org, which tracks military casualties.
Early Wednesday, joint forces sealed off parts of the vast Sadr City slum, a bastion of Al Mahdi, the Shiite Muslim militia loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada Sadr. Troops entered homes demanding information about the missing Britons, residents said.
The U.S., however, would not comment on whether the raids were related to the kidnapping.
Officials said eight suspects were detained and one was injured in the operation. Two men sleeping on their rooftops because of the heat were killed when gunfire erupted during one of the raids, Iraqi police said. Four people reportedly were injured.
The five Britons, a computer expert and four security guards, were seized Tuesday from the Finance Ministry's administrative building by dozens of men in Iraqi police uniforms. They sped off in what appeared to be police vehicles, apparently headed toward Sadr City.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Wednesday that the raid was a "professional job" by people who appeared to have inside information.
"The way they carried out the abduction, the numbers, the cars that were used, it has all the hallmarks of an organized operation by a militia," he told The Times.
The Interior Ministry, which oversees police, detained 16 guards who allegedly offered no resistance to the kidnappers, Zebari said.
He said a number of raids had been conducted in Sadr City to search for the kidnap victims.
"The area [where they were seized] is close to Sadr City.... The likelihood is that it is one of those militias operating in that part of Baghdad," Zebari said. But he said there was no firm evidence linking Sadr's militia to the abductions.
