Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said Sunday that he was the target of gunmen who had kidnapped his brother as he drove through a district in the Iraqi capital. "I was their target, not my brother, because they wanted to pressure me," Jabr told Jordan's state-run Petra news agency. In Baghdad on Saturday, the Interior Ministry confirmed that gunmen had kidnapped Jebbar Jabr Solagh, the minister's brother, as he drove home in Baghdad's district of Sadr City, where he works as a hospital director. Jabr, who began an official visit to Jordan on Friday, told reporters in Amman on Saturday that he did not know about the kidnapping. Speaking to Petra on Sunday, Jabr said he had offered protection to his brother, but that he had refused. "He said he was a technocrat and had nothing to do with politics," Jabr said. "The terrorist aim from this action is to harm Iraq's relations with brotherly Arab states," he added. Jabr was scheduled to hold a press conference later Sunday to outline his discussions with Jordanian officials. On Saturday, the Iraqi minister and his Jordanian counterpart, Awni Yirfas, signed a security agreement that envisages closer cooperation between the two countries in tightening border controls against militants and smugglers.
