More than 60 Iraqi policemen were kidnapped by unknown gunmen after the officers finished a training course in Jordan, said Iraqi police.

The policemen were abducted on Sunday in Rutba, a desert town bestriding the highway between Jordanian borders and the Iraqi capital city of Baghdad, a report posted on the website of Qatar-based al-Jazeera news channel reported.

Around 20 gunmen attacked the hotel where the police officers stayed, covered their heads with black bags and tied their hands,said the report, quoting the Iraqi police.

Most of the policemen were from Karbala, a central southern city populated with Shiite Muslims, it said. The Iraqi Interior Ministry could not be reached for comment.

Iraq's fledging police force has borne the brunt of the wave of violence, featured by bomb attacks and kidnappings, as it was considered by insurgents as collaborators with the US-led forces that invaded Iraq and maintained a large presence.Nine other policemen from the Karbala region were killed on their way home from a training course in Jordan in mid October. Aweek later, about 50 Iraqi National Guards were captured and killedin an execution style when they returned home on a holiday leave.

Source: Xinhua