"Since September, the kidnapping of children has increased," said the city's deputy police chief General Turhan Yussef. "We know of at least 10 cases.

"Two were freed by our forces, one child was released after payment of a ransom, three others were after direct negotiations between the parents and the abductors and four, including two girls, are still being held," he said.

Those still in captivity are a 12-year-old Sunni Arab, a 13- and a 14-year-old Turkmen and a 16-year-old Kurd. Ethnicity is not an issue for the criminals.

Last Thursday, the police announced the liberation of two 14-year-old Turkmen boys, kidnapped by gangsters as they were being chauffeured to school in the centre of Kirkuk.

Ahmed Mohammed Nur al-Din is the son of a famous Kirkuk ophthalmologist, and Judat Sonay, from a wealthy family. Ahmed's family refused to pay a ransom, but Judat's parents shelled out 50,000 dollars (33,300 euros) to get him back.

The wealthy now live in fear of sending their children off to class.

"We are frightened," said Umm Ruha, the wife of a rich husband who preferred not to give her family name.

"I drive my 14-year daughter to and from school every day and I keep the teachers' telephone numbers constantly by my side."

At the end of October, the son of the chief of the Kurdish Zangana tribe was kidnapped.

"It happened at 7:40 in the morning ... and 36 hours later I received a video," said Sheikh Othman Abdel Karim Agha.

"When I saw Mohammed bound, his eyes blindfolded, crying because they had hit him, I fainted," the boy's 55-year-old father said.

Eleven days later, after 40,000 dollars had been paid, the boy was freed.

Deputy police chief Yussef said there were undoubtedly many more children being kidnapped than the police knew about.

"Many families are afraid to report the disappearance of their children -- out of fear of the abductors, because they have no confidence in us or out of social strictures because the case involves girls," he said.

"The kidnappers are not acting with political motives but to collect a ransom," added Yussef, who is himself a Turkmen but has a Kurdish boss.

Psychologist Abdel Karim Khalifa said "families are traumatised because the mafias are growing in the face of an absence of governmental authority and the weakness of the security forces."

"The authors of these villainous crimes belong to all confessions, and choose schoolchildren because they are easy prey," he added.

Sheikh Othman said his Kurdish ethnicity and the fierce opposition of the city's Arab and Turkmen to the Kurds' longstanding demands for its incorporation in their northern autonomous region had nothing to do with his son's abduction.

He said that while the city's politicians were so divided over the city's future status that the issue nearly prevented the adoption of a law for January parliamentary elections by the constitutional deadline, the criminal gangs shared just one interest -- to profit from the atmosphere of fear.

"The criminal gangs and killers get on just fine with each other regardless of their ethnic or religious differences because they're dividing up the proceeds of their criminal activity," he said.

"It's our politicians who are incapable of getting along."

For his son Mohammed, his ordeal at the hands of his kidnappers is a memory that will continue to haunt him.

"They chained me and beat me, and I was in the dark because they blindfolded me," he said.

"I am still in shock from the constant fear of death."

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