'Guardian' Says Reporter Believed Kidnapped

By: (AP) The Guardian newspaper said Wednesday one of its reporters has disappeared in Iraq, and it believes he was kidnapped.

Rory Carroll, 33, an Irish citizen who is the Guardian's Baghdad correspondent, was on assignment when he vanished, the paper said in a statement.

"It is believed Mr. Carroll may have been taken by a group of armed men," the statement said. "The Guardian is urgently seeking information about Mr. Carroll's whereabouts and condition."

A story on the newspaper's Web site Wednesday about Saddam Hussein's trial carries Carroll's byline. He has been based in Baghdad for nine months and previously reported from South Africa and Rome.

Insurgents in Iraq have kidnapped more than 220 foreigners and killed nearly 40.

The most recent previous abduction reported was in September, when a videotape posted on the Internet showed Garabet Jekerjian being held at gunpoint. Jekerjian, a Lebanese, works for a company that supplies food and alcohol to coalition troops. The date of his kidnapping was not known; the videotape was posted Sept. 12.