Red Crescent closes doors in Baghdad

18 Dec, 2006 10:28 / Updated 17 years ago

Red Crescent has closed its offices in Baghdad after a mass kidnapping of aid workers. Notwithstanding their partial release, the group says it will not begin work again until the others are freed.

Police say armed men wearing Iraqi army uniforms seized the workers at the Red Crescent offices.An official of the organization said dozens of employees and visitors were taken, but women were left behind.Three Iraqi security guards were also kidnapped but later released.The Iraqi Red Crescent, the country's biggest humanitarian organization, has been the target of earlier insurgent attacks.In the past three years, seven of the agency's staff or volunteers have been killed.