BAGHDAD, Iraq – Gunmen abducted a man who coached blind athletes and the head of Iraq’s national basketball federation on Wednesday, police said, the latest in a wave of kidnappings targeting sports figures.
Lt. Ali Mohsin said men driving four SUVs drove up to a youth club on Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad Wednesday afternoon, and seized Khalid Nejim, the basketball federation chief who also was a coach for the national basketball team, and Issam Khalef, who coached blind athletes.
Athletes and sports officials have become targets of threats, kidnappings and assassination attempts, with an Iraqi international soccer referee kidnapped just last month as he left the soccer association’s offices. The kidnappers reportedly demanded a $200,000 ransom, although it wasn’t known if the money was ever paid.
Days earlier, gunmen killed a 37-year-old former Iraqi national volleyball player, Naseer Shamil, in his shop in Baghdad, while 22-year-old Ghanim Ghudayer, a popular Iraqi soccer player who was a member of the country’s Olympic team was kidnapped in September. He has not been heard from since.
In July, Iraq’s national soccer coach, Akram Ahmed Salman, resigned after receiving death threats against him and his family.
That came shortly after gunmen kidnapped the chairman of Iraq’s National Olympic Committee and at least 30 other officials, including the presidents of the tae kwon do and boxing federations, in a bold daylight raid on a sports conference in the heart of Baghdad. Iraq’s national wrestling coach, a Sunni, was killed around the same time in a Shiite district of Baghdad.