By DPA
London : Abduction of five Britons in Baghdad is a "very serious challenge" to the Iraqi government, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Wednesday.
Speaking in a BBC radio interview, Zebari said the kidnappers, believed to be supporters of the Shia militia group the Mahdi Army, probably had connections with local police in the area.
"The number of people who were involved in the operation, to seal all the buildings, to set roadblocks, to get into the building with such confidence, they must have had some connection," Zebari said.
According to reports, up to 40 kidnappers dressed in Iraqi police uniforms took the men from inside the finance ministry building, where a lecture on computer training was taking place, and shouted: "Where are the foreigners?"
British reports have suggested that, given the scale and the audacious nature of the operation, there could have been "some connivance" with Iraqi police forces.
Up to 40 vehicles are said to have been used in the abduction.
Four of the kidnap victims are security professionals working for the Canadian-based security firm GardaWorld. The fifth was an expert who was working for the US management consultancy firm BearingPoint.
Late Tuesday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is on a tour of Africa, said his government would do everything it possibly could to secure the release of five men.
Meanwhile Canon Andrew White, a British vicar who works in Baghdad, said there was a "likely connection" between the kidnappings and the death of Abu Qadir, also known as Wissam Waili, a leader of the Mahdi Army militia who was killed in the southern port of Basra on May 25.
"The worrying thing is, this is obviously not a case for ransom demand; economic hostage-taking is fairly easy to deal with," White said.
"We now see that there is very likely a connection between those two events," he added.
British embassy officials were "urgently working" to find out where the men had been taken and who was holding them, officials said Wednesday.
The Iraqi government had set up a special operations room, and efforts were going on in London to assemble a crisis team that would include hostage negotiators and specially trained units.
British press reports said Wednesday that a British Special Air Services (SAS) crack squad was preparing to fly out to Iraq. There was no confirmation of the report.
The British government Tuesday confirmed that five Britons were taken, but gave no further details about where or by whom they may be held.