Four held over Iranian diplomat kidnapping

zeenews
Baghdad, Feb 07: Four Iraqi military officers have been detained over the kidnapping of an Iranian diplomat in Baghdad, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said on Wednesday.

"Those detained are (Iraqi) military officers. But there is some questioning about their affiliations and who is ordering them to do these things," Zebari told reporters.

"There are doubts that the four are affiliated with government entities," he added, without elaborating.

Jalal Sharafi, 40, the second secretary at the Iranian embassy in Baghdad, was abducted in Karrada, a predominantly Shiite Southeastern district of the capital, on Sunday by gunmen dressed in Iraqi Army uniforms.

Iraq and Iran are working closely to resolve the kidnapping, an official at Tehran's embassy said today.

"There is a very close cooperation with the Iraqi Government in this regard," a top official told a news agency, noting that Iranian Ambassador Hasan Kazemi Qmi had met both Zebari and Defence Minister Abdel Qader Jassim Mohammed to discuss the situation.

Bureau Report