"Fahmi Saber, who is in charge of security of the oil pipeline network for the Baiji area, was kidnapped on Saturday by 10 armed men," Majid Mamnun, the director of the Baiji refinery pipeline network, told AFP.

Saber was abducted near the town of Samarra. The kidnappers told his driver that they were taking the executive because he was helping Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to “steal public goods," Mamnun said.