Foreign aid workers kidnapped in Iraq

Four Western aid workers, two believed to be from Canada, one from Britain and one from the United States, have been kidnapped in Iraq, the organisation they were working for said yesterday.

The British and US embassies in Baghdad both said they were investigating reports that their nationals had gone missing. There is no Canadian representative in Iraq.

"We are aware of the report... and are investigating as a matter of urgency," a spokeswoman for the US embassy in Baghdad said, a message echoed by a British embassy spokeswoman.

Earlier yesterday, Britain's Foreign Office said it was investigating reports that a British national had gone missing in Iraq. A spokeswoman said no further details were immediately available.

The humanitarian workers are thought to have been snatched from a violent neighbourhood of western Baghdad on Saturday.

A representative of their group in Baghdad, who refused to be named, said they had received no word on their condition and had no information on the group that had seized them.

It is the first kidnapping of foreigners in Baghdad since an Irish journalist on an assignment in Iraq was kidnapped last month. The journalist, Rory Carroll, was released unharmed after 36 hours.