Iraqi police search for kidnapped American journalist following weekend abduction

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqi police were searching Monday for an American journalist who was kidnapped during the weekend when gunmen ambushed her car and killed her translator in western Baghdad.\nJill Carroll, 28, a freelance reporter on assignment for The Christian Science Monitor, was seized Saturday in the al-Adel area, a Sunni Arab neighborhood and one of the capital's most dangerous. Police said she went there to meet a Sunni Arab politician.\nGen. Mahdi al-Gharawi, commander of the Interior Ministry's public order forces, said Monday an investigation was under way.\n"The ministry is working on this issue and investigations and searches are underway. We are gathering information through our sources and we cannot say more," al-Gharawi said.\nThe newspaper quoted Carroll's driver, who survived the attack, as saying he saw a group appear suddenly "as if they had come from the sky."\n"One guy attracted my attention. He jumped in front of me screaming, 'Stop! Stop! Stop!' with his left hand up and a pistol in his right hand," said the driver, who was not identified.\nThe newspaper said one of the kidnappers pulled the driver from the car, jumped in, and drove away with several kidnappers huddled around Carroll and her interpreter. \n"They didn't give me any time to even put the car in neutral," said the driver.\nA statement from the newspaper said the kidnapping occurred about 300 yards from the office of Adnan al-Dulaimi, a leading Sunni Arab politician. Carroll had planned to interview him at 10 a.m. Saturday, her driver said.\nDulaimi, however, was not in his office and Carroll and her interpreter left after 25 minutes.\n"It was very obvious this was by design," said the driver. "The whole operation took no more than a quarter of a minute. It was very highly organized. It was a setup, a perfect ambush."\nThe newspaper said no one had claimed responsibility for the abduction.\nThe paper said she was "an established journalist who has been reporting from the Middle East for Jordanian, Italian and other news organizations over the past three years.\n"The Monitor joins Jill's colleagues -- Iraqi and foreign -- in the Baghdad press in calling for her immediate and safe release."\n"Jill's ability to help others understand the issues facing all groups in Iraq has been invaluable. We are urgently seeking information about Ms. Carroll and are pursuing every avenue to secure her release," said Monitor Editor Richard Bergenheim.\nAfter initial reports of the kidnapping Saturday, The Associated Press and other news organizations honored a request from the newspaper in Boston and a journalists' group in Baghdad for a news blackout. The request was made to give authorities an opportunity to resolve the incident during the early hours after the abduction.\nAt the time of the kidnapping, police Maj. Falah Mohamadawi said Carroll's translator, identified on a U.S.-issued press card as Alan John Ghazi, told police before he died that he and Carroll had gone to meet al-Dulaimi, the leader of the Iraqi Accordance Front.\nHowever, the newspaper identified the translator as Allan Enwiyah, 32.\nThe neighborhood is one of Baghdad's roughest and has been the site of numerous attacks against U.S. and Iraqi troops and security forces. It is also home to the Umm al-Qura mosque, headquarters of the Association of Muslim Scholars, a major Sunni clerical group. The mosque was raided by U.S. troops shortly before dawn Sunday.\nThe military said the raid came after a tip from an Iraqi citizen that there was "significant terrorist-related activity in the building," and six people were detained. The association is believed to have ties to some insurgent groups.