Between 100 and 150 staff and visitors were kidnapped this morning from the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Scholarships and Cultural Relations Directorate in the downtown Karradah district.
Iraq's higher education minister immediately ordered all universities closed until security improvements are made, saying he was ''not ready to see more professors get killed.''
''I have only one choice which is to suspend classes at universities. We have no other choice,'' Abed Theyab said in an address to parliament.
Evidently the 80 or so gunmen, wearing blue camouflage uniforms of the type worn by police commandos, had an easy time of it, closing off the surrounding streets and receiving no resistance from the 4 ministry guards. The neighborhood police chief is under investigation along with some of his officers.
The abductions were the most brazen attack yet on Iraqi academics, who have often been targeted by insurgents. Recent weeks have seen a university dean and prominent Sunni geologist murdered, bringing the death toll among educators to at least 155 since the war began.
Thousands of professors and researchers have fled to neighboring countries to escape the lawlessness and sectarian strife, robbing the country of its brain trust.
The academics apparently were singled out for their relatively high public stature, vulnerability and known views on controversial issues in a climate of deepening Islamic fundamentalism.
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