2 oil ministry employees kidnapped in Jalawlaa

DIALA / IraqiNews.com: Unidentified gunmen on Friday kidnapped two employees of the Iraqi oil ministry near a village in the town of Jalawlaa, according to a police source in Diala. “Unidentified gunmen set up a fake checkpoint near the village of Wadi al-Asaj, Jalawlaa, (30 km) southwest of Khanaqin district, and led two oil ministry employees to an unknown place,” the source told IraqiNews.com news agency. “The two men were on their way to Khanaqin to supervise some oil projects in the area,” the source added. Khanaqin, 155 km northeast of Baaquba, is one of the areas subject to dispute between the central government in Baghdad and the semi-autonomous Iraq Kurdistan Region. “The gunmen left the employees’ vehicle in the incident site,” he said, adding security authorities launched a probe. Baaqba, the capital city of the unrest-stricken province of Diala, lies 57 km northeast of Baghdad. AmR (P) 2