Posted on 08/11/2004 10:25:27 AM PDT by TexKat
TEHRAN (Reuters) - At least three reporters working for Iran's official IRNA news agency, reported kidnapped by state television, have been arrested by Baghdad police, one of the agency's senior editors said on Wednesday.
Iranian journalists have run into trouble with the authorities in Iraq before. Iraq's defense minister has recently upped anti-Iranian rhetoric, accusing Tehran of sending spies and arms across the border to foment unrest.
"Local police have arrested three of our colleagues in Iraq," Hassan Lavasani, the head of foreign news at IRNA, told Reuters.
He said the bureau chief and two other Iranian reporters had been seized.
But Iran's embassy in Baghdad said two of the men were Iraqi local staff. IRNA's own reports said three local staff had been arrested by the police, along with the bureau chief.
IRNA is affiliated to Iran's reformist government.
The ISNA student news agency named the bureau chief as Mostafa Darban. It named three other detainees as Mohammad Khafaji, Mohsen Madani and "Abu Ali." Their nationalities were not immediately clear.
IRNA reports added the agency lost contact with its Baghdad bureau on Monday afternoon.
A former IRNA Baghdad bureau chief, speaking to state television, said a group of armed men had stormed the IRNA bureau in Baghdad.
"Neighbors said they were police and we have sent an enquiry through the embassy to clarify whether they were and where they have been taken to," he said.
Journalists from Iran's state television said they had made unsuccessful enquiries to the Iraqi police on the whereabouts of the men.
U.S. troops last year arrested two state television reporters, Saeed Abutaleb and Soheil Karimi, saying their behavior at a checkpoint had been suspicious.
The men were held for four months.
State television reported that four Iranians on a trip to promote trade ties between Tehran and Baghdad were arrested by U.S. troops in Iraq. (-- Additional reporting by Nadim Ladki in Baghdad)
Don't pay the ransom, I've escaped.
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