Iraq's prime minister announced a new phase in anti-insurgency operations, as troops seized more than 100 suspects around Baghdad airport and hunted the kidnappers of Egypt's envoy in the capital. Hundreds of troops from Iraq's new army, backed by U.S. soldiers, mounted a dawn raid around Baghdad airport, rounding up more than 100 suspects, some of them Egyptians and other foreigners, the U.S. military said in a statement.
There was no mention of any link to the missing diplomat; 48 hours on, fellow Egyptian officials said there had been no word from the kidnappers, who grabbed him after he stepped out of his car on Saturday to buy a paper at a roadside newsstand. "No one has contacted us yet," an Egyptian diplomat said. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abu al-Gheit appealed to Sherif's captors not to harm him. In what may be a hopeful sign, a hard-line Sunni Arab cleric, Harith al-Dhari, condemned all kidnappings, calling them "a bad phenomenon that emerged after the occupation of Iraq by America and its allies." Dhari heads the Association of Muslim Scholars which is believed to have contacts with some insurgent groups.