Dispute over Iraq hostage numbers

Higher Education Minister Abd Dhiab said 150 people were taken captive, and that 70 to 80 were still being held.

But the prime minister's office said that out of a group of 40 hostages, no more than five were still being held.

The abductions were carried out by gunmen wearing uniforms newly designed for interior ministry police commandos.

Sunni politicians, of whom Mr Dhiab is one, say Tuesday's incident at the higher education ministry building shows that the Iraqi police are colluding with Shia militias.

"What happened was not terrorism, rather it was due to dispute and conflict between militias from one side or another"
Nouri Maliki
Iraqi Prime Minister

The interior ministry, which runs the police force, is assigned to Shia politicians, while the head of the higher education ministry - and many of its employees - are Sunnis.

Mr Dhiab has said he will suspend co-operation with the government until the remaining hostages are released.

"If I can't save and protect the lives of the people in my ministry, whether professors or employees or students, there is no use my staying in the ministry," he told the Reuters news agency.

Baghdad has been plagued by sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia communities.

Hundreds die every month in killings blamed on Shia militias and in bomb attacks blamed on Sunni militant groups.

Unanswered questions

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, a Shia, downplayed sectarian tensions and said militia rivalry was to blame for the kidnapping.

Quick guide: Iraq violence

Kidnapping stokes fears

"What happened was not terrorism, rather it was due to dispute and conflict between militias from one side or another," he said.

He added that the militants behind the daylight raid were "worse than extremists" and demanded that remaining captives be released.

Mr Maliki was speaking at Baghdad university during a visit to calm professors and students.

According to the BBC's Middle East analyst, Roger Hardy, the kidnapping has left several unanswered questions.

While it is possible that it was a dramatic settling of scores between militias, he says, it may equally have been the work of criminal gangs, or there may have been a sectarian motive.

In other developments on Wednesday:

• Police said 55 bodies had been found in Baghdad in a 24-hour period
• At least eight died and more than 30 were hurt in a car bombing outside a petrol station in Baghdad, while a suicide bomber killed three people near a funeral in the south of the city
• Police found the bodies of 10 people in the town of Latifiya, south of Baghdad
• A journalist working for an Iraqi newspaper and her driver were shot dead in the northern city of Mosul
• The US military said four troops had died in Anbar province on Tuesday, with another two killed in Baghdad.

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