French reporter probably kidnapped in Baghdad

The French reporter who disappeared in Iraq last week has probably been abducted, her newspaper said today.

Iraqi and French officials say a search is underway for Florence Aubenas of the daily Liberation and her Iraqi translator, Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi.

They were last seen on Wednesday morning leaving a Baghdad hotel.

Liberation’s managing editor, Antoine de Gaudemar, said the pair do not appear to have been picked up by US or Iraqi forces or been involved in an accident.

But other hypotheses “like kidnapping, are little by little taking on plausibility”, even though there is still no solid confirmation of that, de Gaudemar said today.

A relative of the translator said Aubenas and al-Saadi were abducted in Baghdad near an entrance to the Green Zone, the fortified home of the US embassy and the interim Iraqi government.

The relative said he talked to an owner of a nearby restaurant who claimed to have witnessed the abduction. He said a car pulled up to next to the two and they were forced into the vehicle.

Neither French nor Iraqi authorities confirmed that claim.

France’s Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said officials are checking a report from “journalists who met armed men” that Aubenas and her translator are in good health. He did not elaborate.