Top Iraqi footballer kidnapped

Police said today that a popular Iraqi football player who was a member of the country’s Olympic team had been kidnapped in Baghdad.

Ghanim Ghudayer, 22, considered one of the best players in Baghdad’s Air Force Club, was kidnapped last night by unknown attackers in the al-Amil neighbourhood in the west of the capital where he lives, police 1st Lt. Mutaz Salahiddin said.

The some of the kidnappers were dressed in military uniform, Salahiddin said.

Samir Kadhim, head of the Air Force Club, said the player had been preparing to go to a training session when he was intercepted by the assailants in two vehicles.

Iraqi sports officials and athletes have frequently faced threats, kidnappings, and killings.

In July, Iraq’s national soccer coach, Akram Ahmed Salman, resigned after receiving death threats against him and his family.

Earlier that month, unknown gunmen kidnapped the chairman of Iraq’s National Olympic Committee and at least 30 other officials, including the presidents of the taekwondo and boxing federations, in a brazen daylight raid on a sports conference in the heart of Baghdad.

The abduction came after Iraq’s national wrestling coach, a Sunni, was killed in a Shiite district of Baghdad.

Football is popular in Iraq, where the national team’s successes in the past three years have provided a joyous distraction from the daily violence.