BAGHDAD (AFP) - More than 100 Iraqis employed by the ministry of industry north of Baghdad were kidnapped by gunmen as they left work Wednesday, a security source said.
The workers at the Hateen and Nasr factories in the restive town of Taji, 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of the capital, were ambushed by at least 50 gunmen who had arrived in five minibuses, the source said.
They were loaded onto the same buses that were waiting to take them back to their homes, he said.
No further details were immediately available on the spectacular kidnapping which resembled similar incidents in the past in which ordinary civilians as well as Iraqi army and police members have been snatched en masse.
On June 5, 50 people working for long distance bus travel companies in central Baghdad were kidnapped by gunmen dressed in ministry of interior uniforms in broad daylight. Only 17 out of the group have been released since.
Hateen and Nasr were part of the military-industrial complex under the rule of ousted leader Saddam Hussein before their conversion into civilian manufacturing facilities belonging to the ministry of industry.
The factories had been visited by UN inspectors in relation to the former regime's alleged weapons of mass destruction program.
Taji is also home to a major former regime military base that is now occupied by U.S. forces.
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