Gunmen kidnap 22 Iraqi shepherds in Karbala

A shepherd in Anbar's Fallujah

KARBALA, Iraq -- Gunmen wearing police uniforms seized 22 shepherds and their sheep in southern Iraq Wednesday in the latest mass abduction of Shiite workers by presumed Sunni insurgents.

Traveling in three cars, the kidnappers swooped on the shepherds in an isolated desert area north of the Shiite shrine city of Karbala and took their truck, herd, and weapons, said Karbala police spokesman Rahman Mushawi.

The victims were forced into vehicles and driven toward the neighboring Sunni province of Anbar, a hotbed of Al Qaeda and Sunni insurgents opposed to the Shiite-led government and its US backers.

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