Pakistan official kidnapped in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The family of a Pakistani embassy employee kidnapped in Baghdad appealed Sunday for his captors to release him, and al-Qaida's ally in Iraq claimed to have kidnapped and killed a senior police official.\nThe kidnappings came as Iraq's most feared terrorist organization issued an Internet statement rejecting any efforts by the new government to make peace.\nMalik Mohammed Javed, a consular and community affairs employee at Pakistan's embassy, went missing in Baghdad on Saturday after leaving home to pray at a mosque, officials said.\nThe previously unknown Omar bin Khattab group claimed responsibility for his kidnapping and Javed called the embassy to say his abductors had not harmed him, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.\nMinistry spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani said he had no information about the group. There have been no reports of a group by that name existing in Iraq.\nThe kidnappers' demands were not immediately clear.\nPossibly anticipating a demand for Islamabad to close its embassy in Baghdad, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said, "We will neither withdraw our embassy staff nor close the mission."\nJaved's son appealed to his father's kidnappers to release him, saying the family was in pain.\n"Everyone is crying here," Bilal Malik, 20, told The Associated Press by telephone. "My father has done nothing wrong. He was only going to offer his prayers. They are Muslims. They should release our father who is also a Muslim."\nThe kidnapping comes nine months after insurgents abducted and killed two Pakistanis working for a Kuwaiti company in Iraq. Their abductors had demanded that Pakistan promise not to send any troops to Iraq.\nPakistan, a key U.S. ally in the war against terrorism, has refused to deploy peacekeepers and has urged its citizens to avoid coming here.\nAlso Sunday, the terrorist group al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed to have kidnapped and killed Najaf police Brig. Gen. Bassem Mohammed Kadhim al-Jazaari while he was visiting Baghdad.\n"He has been interrogated," said the statement, which could not be independently verified. "After his confessions, God's verdict was carried out against him."\nIraqi Interior Ministry official Capt. Ahmed Isma'el said al-Jazaari was kidnapped late Saturday in western Baghdad, but he had no other details.\nIn a separate statement, the same group rejected interim President Jalal Talabani's attempts to reach out to Iraqi insurgents. Talabani's call was not directed at foreign fighters.\n"Oh, you agents of the Jews and the Christians, we have nothing for you but the sword," the statement said. "We will not stop fighting."\nIn the ongoing battle against Saddam Hussein's former regime, the Iraqi government announced Sunday that security forces had arrested Ibrahim Sabaawi, the son of Saddam's half brother, near Baghdad. The statement said Sabaawi was close to the former regime.\n"Until his arrest, he had been supporting terrorists and providing them with finances," it said.\nIt was unclear when the arrest took place.\nIraq's National Assembly also met and called for relaxing security measures that have snarled traffic and closed much of central Baghdad during their sessions. The government still must approve the request.\n"These measures are highly exaggerated and they hinder the work of the employees and the movement of the citizens," parliament speaker Hajim al-Hassani said. "We asked the security officials to relax these measures"