Iraqi kidnappings unabated as broader violence subsides

Ten-year-old Iraqi football fan Muntazer picked up his ball one day and walked to his grandparents' house. On the way, he was snatched by kidnappers, who murdered him and poured acid on his body to try to erase evidence of the crime. Then the thugs extorted $25,000 from his family. "I managed to get the money. I paid them. They told me they will release my son tomorrow, but they did not," Yusuf al-Moussawi says. As Iraq emerges from the sectarian carnage set off by the 2003 U.S. invasion, violent crimes from bank robberies and home invasions to kidnappings appear to have have leaped. Organised crime has come into the spotlight as attacks by insurgents and militants declined and armed groups often have murky, but sometimes close links with the criminals.