Group claims Algerian abductions

A colleague said kidnappers were lying in wait for the diplomats

A group claiming to be al-Qaeda in Iraq has said it kidnapped two Algerian diplomats who were snatched in Baghdad on Thursday.

Insurgents loyal to the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Masab al-Zarqawi, posted the claim on a website.

Ali Balarousi, Algeria's top envoy to the country, and his colleague, Azzedin Belkadi, were seized in Mansour.

The authenticity of the claim could not be verified. No images of the men or proof of their identity was offered.

A group headed by Zarqawi which claimed responsibility for the kidnap and murder of an Egyptian diplomat posted copies of his ID cards on the internet when they made the claim.

Envoys targeted

Saturday's statement boasted that the Algerian men had been taken from one of the most heavily-guarded areas of the city, the western Mansour district.

ATTACKS ON ARAB ENVOYS 23 July 2005: Al-Qaeda in Iraq claims kidnap of Algerian diplomats 21 July 2005: Algerian mission chief Ali Balarousi and an aide are abducted 5 July: Bahraini envoy Hassan Malallah al-Ansari is shot and wounded during an apparent abduction attempt 2 July: Egypt's ambassador-designate Ihab al-Sherif is abducted; he is later killed 24 July 2004: Militants briefly kidnap Egyptian diplomat Mohamed Mamdouh Qutb

"The enemies of God and the tyrant countries should know that the head of the Algerian mission was taken from the most secured of areas," it said.

"This [Algeria] is yet another country that does not obey the rule of God and is a tyrant of this age," it added.

Mr Balarousi, Algeria's charge d'affaires in Baghdad, and his colleague, Mr Belkadi, were bundled into cars by armed men outside a restaurant.

Mr Balarousi had been stationed in Iraq for nearly two years. Mr Belkadi arrived last month.

Diplomatic damage

The US has been encouraging Arab countries to appoint ambassadors to Baghdad in an attempt to strengthen the new state and undermine the insurgency.

Forty-six countries have foreign missions in Iraq, according to Iraq's foreign ministry.

But a series of diplomats from Islamic countries have been targeted since the kidnap and killing of Egypt's envoy, Ihab al-Sherif.

Officials say insurgents have launched attacks on diplomats to try to dissuade Arab countries from raising the level of their diplomatic representation.

Earlier in July, gunmen attacked vehicles carrying Pakistani and Bahraini diplomats to Iraq in an apparent attempt to damage support for the US-backed government.