BAGHDAD: Guerrillas yesterday took at least 60 people hostage in an Iraqi town near Baghdad and threatened to kill them unless Shias left the area, a Shia official quoted residents as saying.

The hostage-taking and three successive days of bombings which killed at least 34 people suggested insurgents had regrouped after a lull in violence since January 30 elections.

“People from the town called me begging the Iraqi government to save their relatives who are hostages. They told me there are at least 60 hostages,” the official, who asked not to be identified, said in Baghdad.

Insurgents with heavy weapons appeared to have taken control of the mixed Sunni and Shia town of Madaen, just south of Baghdad, and no police or government forces were in sight, said the official.

“The residents told me the insurgents were wandering the streets in cars and warning people on loudspeakers that if Shias want the hostages to be safe they must leave town,” he said.

Guerrillas have taken control of cities such as Fallujah before but seizing many hostages in a town so close to the capital will pile pressure on Iraq’s new leaders to deliver the improved security Iraqis have expected since the elections.

Iraq has yet to form a full government 11 weeks after the polls, with politicians trying to manoeuvre round sectarian minefields amid huge political changes after decades of dictatorship under Saddam Hussain.

The majority Shias, long-sidelined under Saddam, have gained power along with Kurds while the Sunni minority has watched vast privileges from past years vanish. – Reuters