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2nd mass kidnapping in Iraq; martial law extended

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- For a second day, gunmen dressed as Iraqi government forces staged a mass kidnapping Monday, raiding several computer stores in central Baghdad and seizing at least 14 people, a Baghdad emergency police official told CNN.

The abductions were carried out by at least 25 gunmen impersonating Iraqi security forces. The kidnappers, traveling in seven vehicles, raided computer stores near Baghdad's Technology University around noon (5 a.m. ET).

On Sunday, at least 20 gunmen, several disguised as police commandos, kidnapped 26 workers from a Baghdad meat processing plant, according to a Baghdad emergency police official.

The U.S. military began distributing new Iraqi police uniforms last week, in an effort to prevent insurgents from pretending to be police while carrying out kidnappings and attacks.

Some insurgent attacks are believed to have been carried out by militia members who have been integrated into Iraq's security forces, but have not changed their loyalties.

In an effort to stem the lawlessness on the streets of Baghdad and across much of Iraq, the Iraqi parliament Monday voted to extend martial law until November 1.

Martial law, which has been in effect for several months, includes a nighttime curfew and gives the government extra powers to make arrests without warrants and launch police and military operations when it deems necessary. The law will cover all of Iraq except the autonomous Kurdish areas in the north.

In other violence on Monday, three roadside bombs in Baghdad killed three people and wounded nine others, including three Iraqi soldiers, police said.

Earlier in the day, two Iraqi policemen were killed and three other officers were wounded when gunmen ambushed their patrol in Kut al-Hay, a Kut health center official told CNN. Kut al-Hay is located about about 125 miles (200 kilometers) south of Baghdad.

Meanwhile, in Kut, about 40 miles (60 kilometers) south of Baghdad, the morgue Monday received five bodies that were recovered from the town of Suwayra a day earlier. Three of the bodies had been decapitated.

Police say such killings are typically the result of Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence.

Three U.S. Marines died Sunday in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Monday.

"One Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 and one Marine assigned to 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Headquarters Group died from injuries sustained due to enemy action," a statement released Monday said.

"One Marine assigned to 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Headquarters Group died from a noncombat related vehicle accident," the statement said.

With the deaths, 2,710 U.S. military personnel have been killed in the Iraq war. Seven American civilian contractors of the military also have died in the conflict.

The British Ministry of Defense Monday confirmed the death of a British soldier, killed Sunday in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

The soldier, a member of the Royal Army Medical Corps, died in an attack on the Shaat Al Arab Hotel base in Basra, the MOD said. Another soldier was seriously injured in the attack.

With the death, 117 British soldiers have died in the Iraq war.

Iraq: We'll get al Qaeda leader, dead or alive

Iraq's national security adviser Sunday issued a warning to the new leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, telling Abu Ayyub al-Masri that Iraqi troops are close to getting him "either as a corpse or tied up to face justice soon."

Muwaffak al-Rubaie showed reporters a video captured during a recent raid that he said showed al-Masri training followers to make car bombs.

He estimated that al-Masri has been involved in making more than 2,000 car bombs that have killed more than 6,000 Iraqis over the past two years. (Watch the video -- 40)

"We want to tell Abu Ayyub al-Masri that we are so close to you, much more closer than you thought," al-Rubaie said.

Al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, is an Egyptian who took over the leadership of al Qaeda in Iraq in June after the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Other developments

CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq, Arwa Damon and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.

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