Iraqi minister denies kidnapping

The Iraqi minister of state for governorate affairs, Wael Abdul Latif, denied news which talked on Sunday evening about his kidnapping. News reports quoted Abdul Latif as saying that he is safe in his house in Baghdad, while the director of the minister's office for governorate's affairs denied officially that the latter was kidnapped.

News were contradictory earlier on the disappearance of Abdul latif and the fate of ten of his guards. Police officials and the ministry of the interior said that the minister was kidnapped to the south of the capital in addition to ten guards as his procession was coming back to Basra.