1st LD: Unidentified militants kidnap 32 people in Baghdad

Unidentified gunmen kidnapped 32 people from their homes in eastern Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, on Saturday, an Interior Ministry source said.

Some 30 gunmen wearing black military uniforms in 10 vehicles stormed several houses in Sadr City neighborhood, kidnapping 32 people, including women and children, and fled the scene, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The abducted people were members of several Sunni families in the Shiite bastion of Sadr City, as they have been protected by some Shiite moderate clerics during the past years of bloody sectarian strife in Iraq that followed the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, the source said.

Security forces rushed to the scene and cordoned off the area, the source said, adding that an investigation was launched to identify the attackers. Endit