US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appealed to Iraqis today not to let the sectarianism that is fuelling an orgy of violence destroy their country.
A recent surge of kidnappings by men in uniform has stoked fears of infiltration of Iraq's security forces by members of both sectarian militias and criminal groups.
Continuing arguments today between Sunni- and Shia-run ministries about the fate of hostages seized from the Higher Education Ministry on Tuesday underlined the extent to which sectarianism infects politics at the top.
Rice said during a visit to Vietnam that Iraqis "have one future and that is a future together. They don't have a future if they try to stay apart."
An official at the Sunni-run Higher Education Ministry said he had a list of 35 names of staff missing from the Reconstruction and Projects department, one of two in the building. The other department was missing 11 staff, and 20 visitors were also unaccounted for, he said.
He said a released hostage had seen two others die of suffocation after being gagged with cotton wool and tape while being tortured. Another ministry official said five hostages had been released on Friday after being tortured.
The US military said in a statement that Iraqi special forces backed by US advisers had conducted a raid against a kidnapping cell in Sadr City, a Shia militia stronghold where witnesses said the ministry hostages had been taken.
But a spokesman for the Shia-run Interior Ministry, Brigadier Abdul Karim Khalaf, said all the hostages were free:
"This matter is now closed and we have declared all the hostages released. If any family says one of their relatives is missing, let them come to the ministry and tell us."