The hostages – a Bearingpoint computer expert and four bodyguards seconded to protect him by Canadian private security company Gardaworld – were seized at a Government building near the Sadhr City suburb, a known Mehdi Army stronghold populated by Shia militia.
According to the BBC, the kidnappers wore police uniforms and staged the capture without a single shot being fired. The swiftness and ease of their deed suggests that these political miscreants have connections with the local police.
The Anglican Vicar of Baghdad – Canon Andrew White – told journalists of a “likely connection” between the kidnappings and the death of Abu Qadir, the Mehdi militia leader who was killed in Basra at the tail end of May. However, the BBC’s security expert Frank Gardner OBE was not ruling out the prospect of al-Qaeda having been involved.
This is the second incident of its kind in as many months, following hot-on-the-heels of 15 Royal Marines and Royal Navy personnel being seized at gunpoint after inspecting an Iraqi boat. It was suggested they had strayed into Iranian waters while doing so, and that this is why they were taken to a Revolutionary Guards Corps base in Tehran.
Iranian sources confirmed at the time that the Britons were being interrogated to ascertain whether or not their mission had been one focused on intelligence gathering.
It’s likely the latest captives will also be subjected to some form of cross-questioning, perhaps torture. This is a brazen raid indeed, and thought to be the first time Westerners have been abducted from a Government facility in Iraq.
What these incidents emphasise is the importance all UK-based security managers ought to be placing on preparing their company’s members of staff for operations overseas.
As Nick van der Bijl chillingly states in his excellent Opinion article (‘Can we rely upon The Big Four?’), today’s militias and organised resistance movements frequently disregard international law or are “selective” in abiding by it.
The $64,000 question is: “To what extent is the failure to give employees working in areas where kidnapping and/or hostage-taking is rife an adequate briefing on conduct after seizure a lapse in your company’s Duty of Care?”
Brian Sims
Editor