(KUNA) -- A senior Iraqi official found dead a few hours after being kidnapped on Wednesday. A police source said the body of the Major-General Abdullah Shahadhah was found in Al-Sh'ab area to the east of Baghdad. Shahadhah was the director of Iraq's residency department in-charge of handling the affairs of expatriates and foreign visitors.In another development, Iraq's Defense Ministry, in a press release, said during the past 24 hours, security forces arrested 32 gunmen, liberated two hostages and found three dead bodies belonging to two males and a female.
In addition, gunmen disguised as army soldiers kidnapped 17 civilians. Speaking to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), a police source said the gunmen stormed a residential building and kidnapped the civilians that included 10 men, five women and two children. The description of vehicles used by the gunmen was distributed to checkpoints in an attempt to rescue the hostages, added the source.