A female Sunni Arab lawmaker was kidnapped with seven of her bodyguards while travelling in a Shiite neighborhood in northeastern Baghdad on Saturday morning, police and Sunni lawmakers told Xinhua.

The convoy of Taiseer Najah al-Mashhadani, a member of the Sunni Consensus Front, was kidnapped with her seven bodyguards when gunmen in two cars ambushed the convoy in the Saha intersection in Shaab neighborhood, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Sunni lawmakers also confirmed the incident.

Mashhadani's convoy was travelling from Diyala province to Baghdad through the Shaab neighborhood, said Ayad al-Samarraie, a member of the Iraqi Islamic Party, which is part of the Iraqi Consensus Front.

Samarraie, however, could not give further information about the incident.

Meanwhile, another Iraqi Islamic party member in Diyala, Hamdi Hasson, told the pan Arab al-Jazeera television that a faked checkpoint stopped Mashhadani's convoy at the Saha intersection at about 9:30 a.m. (0530 GMT) and kidnapped the victims after they handcuffed them.

He said that an eighth bodyguard ran away from the scene and returned to Diyala's Baquba city, some 65 km north of Baghdad, to tell his story to Islamic party in the city, Hasson added.

The incident came amid increasing security deterioration in Baghdad, shaping a major setback for the government's efforts to crack down violence in the country's capital.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki launched a security crackdown in Baghdad since June 14 with 50,000 Iraqi troops supported by 7,000 U.S. troops.

Source: Xinhua