BAGHDAD - Two Americans and a Briton were abducted from their home in a plush Baghdad district at dawn Thursday, in the latest blow in Iraq's five-month-old foreign hostage crisis, the interior ministry said.
"Two Americans and a British civilian were kidnapped from their house in the Mansur district in Baghdad this morning around 6:00 (0200 GMT)," ministry spokesman Colonel Adnan Abdul Rahman said, correcting an earlier statement that the trio were all British.
He said a group of armed men had driven up in a minibus before bursting into the house and snatching the three hostages.
A colonel from the Maamun police station that patrols the western part of Mansur said the Briton and two American worked for a supply company and had been seized at gunpoint.
"We've heard the report from the interior ministry and we're trying to get to the bottom of it," US embassy spokesman Richard Schmierer said.
Jewish-American businessman Nicholas Berg was kidnapped in April before his severed head was found in Baghdad.
The British embassy was desperately trying to determine what happened, a spokeswoman said.
"We are aware of these reports and we are urgently seeking information. We're just trying to verify what happened," she said.
British journalist James Brandon was seized by Shiite Muslim militants in the main southern city of Basra on August 12. He was released the following day in the face of pressure from Shiite militia leader Moqtada Sadr.
Britain was the staunchest supporter of last year's US-led invasion and is still the second largest troop contributor to the coalition, with 8,071 soldiers posted mainly in the south.
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