"The gunmen were accompanied by civilians with identification cards from Iraq's Public Integrity Commission, an anti-corruption watchdog." An update on [1] this story. "U.S., Iraqi troops hunt for Britons; militia blamed," by Mariam Karouny and Ahmed Rasheed for [2] Reuters:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. and Iraqi soldiers searched Baghdad on Wednesday for five kidnapped Britons who Iraq's foreign minister said had probably been taken by a Shi'ite militia.

Troops raided Baghdad neighborhoods, including the Sadr City stronghold of the Shi'ite Mehdi Army militia, after dozens of gunmen kidnapped a British computer expert Peter Moore and his four bodyguards from a Finance Ministry building on Tuesday.

An Iraqi government official said the kidnappings could be in retaliation for the killing of the top commander of fiery Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's militia by British-backed Iraqi soldiers in Basra in the south last week.

"It may be the Mehdi Army because the location of the (kidnapping) is in their theatre of operations," Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari told Reuters.

"Their safety is our top priority ... I don't think they will finish them. They are using them for bargaining, but they have not contacted anybody yet."

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said British officials were working with Iraqi authorities to find out how the Britons were abducted and to secure their swift release.

An Interior Ministry spokesman dismissed suggestions the kidnappers, dressed in police commando camouflage uniforms and driving official vehicles, were a renegade unit from his ministry.

Interior Ministry forces are known to be heavily infiltrated by Shi'ite militias, including the Mehdi Army, and have often been accused of kidnappings and sectarian killings.

But a top official in Sadr's political movement, Abdul Mahdi al-Mutiri, said the scale and organization of Tuesday's operation was beyond the Mehdi Army's capabilities.

A government employee who witnessed the kidnappings also gave new details of the well-planned operation and told how two other Westerners had narrowly escaped being taken by the gunmen at the Finance Ministry building in Palestine Street.

The ministry identified the kidnapped Briton as Peter Moore and said he worked for BearingPoint, a U.S.-based consulting firm. It appealed for his release, saying he had been working in Iraq's national interest.

It said the gunmen were accompanied by civilians with identification cards from Iraq's Public Integrity Commission, an anti-corruption watchdog. The commission denied any involvement.