Ihab al Sherif, Egypt’s top envoy to Iraq, was abducted by eight armed assailants on Saturday night when he went to pick up a newspaper from close to his home in Baghdad, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry has confirmed.
Fifty-one-year-old al Sherif had arrived in Iraq on June 1. According to eyewitness accounts, his abductors called him an ‘American spy’ and hit him with the butt of a gun, while bundling him into the trunk of a BMW.
Speculations are rife about his abduction being the result of Egypt announcing its decision to become the first Arab nation to appoint an official ambassador to the war-torn state, whose new government is being formed with the help of the United States.
“I arrived this morning and I was shocked to learn that the ambassador had been kidnapped,” one of al Sherif’s employee said. Another diplomat noted, “The motives are believed to be political. He was buying a newspaper on Saturday evening when two BMWs full of gunmen blocked his way and kidnapped him.”
Al Sherif’s car was found intact close to his house in the affluent Mansur area. So far, no extremist group has claimed responsibility for the abduction and the envoy’s whereabouts are not known.
Al Sherif, who was declared the ambassador to Iraq on June 1, is the second Egyptian diplomat to be abducted in Iraq, the first being Mohammed Mamdouh Helmi Qutb, who was kidnapped on June 23. He was later released after Egypt reassured his abductors that it was not sending any troops to Iraq to aid reconstruction and support the US in containing insurgency.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement in Cairo about its official’s kidnapping. “The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs hopes for a speedy clarification of the situation and the safeguarding of the security of the Egyptian diplomat who is charged with strengthening relations between the two brotherly peoples of Egypt and Iraq,” a statement released by the ministry said.
Egypt’s foreign minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said both Egypt and Iraq were working towards tracing al Sherif and securing his release. “Our colleague... went to Iraq to serve the interests of the Iraqi people. We hope that they try their best in locating him and that he returns safely to his family. We understand the fury of the Iraqi people but this man is working for the benefit of the Iraqi and the Egyptian people and therefore we wish that he is treated accordingly,” the foreign minister said.
However, Egypt has made its decision to support the formation of the new government clear. Other Arab countries were also considering Washington’s call to strengthen ties with Iraq but after this episode, most are likely to shy away.
Over thousands of Iraqis and more than 200 foreigners have been abducted in the insurgency following the United States’ war with Iraq in 2003. Even though many have been released, some of them lost their lives in the battle between Islamic extremist groups and the United States.
