Scores of Men Abducted in Raid on Iraqi Higher-Education Office.

The article looks at how in an escalation of violence against Iraqi higher education, gunmen attacked the offices of a government education agency in Baghdad and abducted scores of male employees and visitors. A number of the hostages were freed in police raids. In response to the attacks Iraq's minister of higher education, Abed Dhiyabh al-Ajili, denounced lawmakers for not protecting the country's academics. After the abductions Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki went to the University of Baghdad and promised better security and no disruptions to education. A former dean of the University of Baghdad blames the attacks on the sectarian militias, especially the Mahdi Army, a group controlled by the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr.