Gunmen seized a French engineer from outside his home in Baghdad yesterday, beating their screaming victim as they hauled him to their getaway car, neighbors said.

Officials identified him as Bernard Planche, who worked at the Rusafa water treatment plant in eastern Baghdad. It was the third kidnapping of Westerners in Iraq in 10 days.

Planche was snatched by seven gunmen in two cars as he prepared to leave his home in the upscale west Baghdad district of Mansour, police quoted witnesses as saying. Small pools of blood were left outside the gates of his house.

One neighbor said the gunmen beat a screaming Planche as they hauled him away, while witnesses looked on helpless. "The whole neighborhood watched and no one did anything to help him," the man, who declined to be named, said.

"The Frenchman had his hands in the air and was screaming."

In Paris, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei declined to confirm the kidnapping.
"We are checking with our embassy in Baghdad and hope to have more details in the coming hours," Mattei said.

A French embassy official in Baghdad said he was trying to get information.

Planche's kidnapping follows the abduction of German archaeologist and aid worker Susanne Osthoff on November 25 and that of four Christian peace activists two from Canada and one each from Britain and the United States the following day.

The recent spate of kidnappings follows a lull in abductions of Westerners in recent months, as most foreigners cut back on all but essential travel around Baghdad.

The French Government which opposed the US-led invasion in March 2003 has taken strong measures to dissuade its citizens from venturing into Iraq following two kidnappings involving French journalists in 2004 and earlier this year.

Iraqi officials went so far as to expel a French freelance reporter from Iraq in June citing threats to her security, a decision the journalist said was taken at the French Government's request. France, however, pinned the move on a sovereign decision made by Iraq.

Previous French hostages were freed amid speculation of ransom payments, though the French Government denied that too.

They included Liberation newspaper reporter Florence Aubenas and her Iraqi guide Hussein Hanun al-Saadi, who were held for more than 150 days before their release in June. French journalists Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot were released in December 2004 after four months in captivity.

Thousands of civilians have been kidnapped in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, including over 200 foreigners. Many fall victim to criminal gangs set on ransom but insurgent groups have also often demanded foreign forces quit Iraq.

Most foreign hostages have been released, but around 50 have been executed some by grisly beheadings in front of cameras.

(China Daily December 6, 2005)