Companies identify British abducted from Finance Ministry in Baghdad as economic consultant and 4 bodyguards

Above and Left: In March of this year, the facade of the Finance Ministry was badly damaged after police found and detonated a parked truck bomb. Various reports say that up to 40 gunmen were involved in today's kidnapping, and that at least some wore Iraqi police uniforms with official IDs. Britain has said that is has convened its COBRA emergency panel, including experts on dealing with hostage situations. BearingPoint, which employs the consultant, is located in McLean, Va., which is also home to the headquarters of the CIA. BearingPoint has been working in Iraq since 2003 on a U.S. Agency for International Development-funded contract.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Management and technology consulting firm BearingPoint Inc. said one its employees working in Iraq was among the five Westerners kidnapped Tuesday from an Iraqi Finance Ministry office in Baghdad.

Britain's Foreign Office said all five abducted workers were Britons. Joe Gavaghan, a spokesman for Montreal-based security firm GardaWorld, confirmed that four of its security workers and one client were forcibly taken from a Baghdad facility. All four GardaWorld workers are British citizens, he said, declining to provide more details.

"We have been informed that a BearingPoint employee working in Iraq was taken from a work site early this morning," spokesman Steve Lunceford wrote in an e-mail. "We are fully cooperating with local and international authorities to ascertain facts surrounding this incident and are supporting rescue efforts."

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Five Britons kidnapped in Baghdad, UK says; Declines to comment on reports abductees are security 'contractors'