Zarqawi group claims kidnapping of Iraqi police colonel

DUBAI, Feb 11 (AFP) - Militants loyal to Iraq's most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of a colonel in the Iraqi police, according to an Internet statement Friday.
The Al-Qaeda Group of Jihad in the Land of the Two Rivers named the official as 'Riad Katei Aliawi' and said he was seized on Wednesday in Baghdad.
The statement, posted on an Islamist website, also said the group would release a tape about the official's confessions.
The authenticity of the statement could not be verified.
Officials in Baghdad said Wednesday that the oil ministry's representative to the interior ministry, Colonel Riad Allawi, was kidnapped in the capital.
Zarqawi, the Al-Qaeda frontman in Iraq, is a Jordanian-born fugitive with a 25-million-dollar US price on his head.

02/11/2005 11:19 GMT - AFP