31 Iraqi Police Kidnapped in Western Iraq

Wires-AP Baghdad

Police in Karbala said Wednesday that 31 Iraqi policemen have been kidnapped in western Iraq while returning from training in Jordan.

A Karbala police spokesman who spoke under condition of anonymity said that the police officers were ambushed Sunday in the town of Rutba near the Jordanian border.

"There was an attack on a hotel occupied by policemen coming back from training in Jordan," he said.

The spokesman cited a Karbala policeman who returned from Rutba as saying that an armed group had kidnapped the policemen, many of whom were from Diyala province.

The police officer told him that 20 armed men stormed the hotel rooms where the police were staying, covering the captives' heads with black bags