BAGHDAD (AFP) - Two Americans and a Briton were kidnapped at gunpoint from their smart Baghdad home, as the two main powers behind last year`s controversial invasion became the latest victims in a five-month hostage crisis.
The new abductions came against the backdrop of fresh UN criticism of the US-led intervention, with Secretary General Kofi Annan flatly describing the invasion as "illegal" for the first time in 17 months.
The US embassy identified its two snatched citizens as Jack Hensley and Eugene `Jack` Armstrong, confirming they were abducted by armed men along with a British subject.
Interior ministry spokesman Colonel Adnan Abdul Rahman said the three hostages worked for a Gulf-based private equipment firm.
Armed men drove up in a minibus around dawn and burst into the trio`s home in the upmarket Mansur neighbourhood of the capital.
The abduction bore the hallmarks of the way two Italian women aid workers and two Iraqi colleagues were snatched at gunpoint from inside their house in a quiet residential area of Baghdad earlier this month.
It was likely to further deplete an already dwindling expatriate community whose know-how is seen as essential to plans to revive the war-shattered economy and build a new Iraq.
Two French journalists kidnapped nearly a month ago were still being held by a Sunni Arab militant group despite relentless efforts by Paris to secure their release.
More than 100 foreigners are thought to have been abducted in Iraq since April and more than 20 murdered, in a new insurgent tactic alongside their longstanding diet of mortar and rocket-propelled grenade attacks and roadside bombings.
A massive car bomb attack against the capital`s main police station killed 49 people Tuesday and a new explosion rocked the capital lunchtime Wednesday.
The surge of violence coincided with the publication by the New York Times of extracts from a US intelligence report painting a bleak picture of Iraq`s future.
Without providing any specific details of the 50-page report prepared by the National Intelligence Council, one official who had read it said it contained "a significant amount of pessimism".
In another blow to the US administration, Annan gave an interview to the BBC in which he described last year`s invasion as "illegal".
"I`ve indicated that it was not in conformity with the UN charter from our point of view, and from the charter point of view it was illegal," he said.
Annan also said it was unlikely Iraq would be able to hold "credible elections" as planned in January 2005 "if the security conditions continue as they are now."
Interim President Ghawi al-Yawar insisted it was "premature" to talk about delaying the polls despite the surging violence.
"It`s a little bit too premature to decide on this issue -- our priority is restoring security," Ghazi Al-Yawar told reporters after talks with the Dutch foreign and finance ministers on a European tour.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard hit back at Annan, accusing him of heading a "paralysed" body and insisting the war was legitimate. British and Polish officials also defended the invasion.
The reported kidnappings of two Australians, together with two East Asians, north of Baghdad on Tuesday have rocked Howard`s own bid for a fourth term as an October 9 general election nears.
Meanwhile, the US military released 108 detainees from the notorious Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of the capital as part of the first wave of prisoners released by a new Iraqi-US commission.
US prison authorities also used the opportunity to unveil an enlarged and revamped 26-million-dollar clinic in the sprawling prison complex, which will offer full medical care to the 2,500 inmates still locked up.
On Wednesday, the US army released 275 prisoners from the jail, west of Baghdad, after their cases were reviewed by the new nine-member Combined Review and Release Board.