Iraqi troops backed by US forces have raided parts of a town south of Baghdad to try to free a group of Shi'ites seized by Sunni insurgents and threatened with death.
A senior Shi'ite official in Baghdad said up to 150 hostages, including women and children, were being held after well-armed guerrillas entered Madaen on Friday and seized them.
Iraq's caretaker prime minister, Iyad Allawi, blamed the kidnappings on al-Qaeda's wing in Iraq, a group that has carried out many attacks in the country, and said it was part of a plan to spread sectarian strife and provoke a Sunni-Shi'ite civil war.
"Unfortunately, evil powers are trying to disturb the peace of our country, stop progress, destroy Iraq, keep killing innocent civilians, and planning for the start of ethnic, sectarian and religious division," Allawi said in a statement.
He said some people were trying to implement "wicked plans of extremist terror" and urged Iraqis to remain calm.
No group had claimed responsibility for the kidnappings, and an Internet statement issued in the name of al-Qaeda's wing in Iraq said the crisis was fabricated as a pretext for raiding the town and attacking Sunni Muslims.
"The infidels fabricated the case of the hostages. They are lying," said the Sunni group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The statement could not be independently verified.
Several Iraqis said their relatives had been abducted, but a police official said the hostages could number as few as three.
Despite the confusion, the crisis has raised fears of deeper sectarian strife in a country struggling to form a government that balances the interests of Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds after decades of iron-fisted rule under Saddam Hussein.
Troops armed with machine-guns and assault rifles moved to the edge of Madaen, about 40km south-east of Baghdad, and US troops cut off two bridges near the town yesterday.
"Three brigades have been moved towards the area, and this morning there were five from the Iraqi National Guard, the Ministry of Interior and multinational forces," Kassim Daoud, the Minister for National Security, told parliament.
"Three areas where we suspected there were terrorists were raided but no one was found. There are other areas we will attack soon."
Sunni militant groups have carried out abductions before, part of a campaign that Iraqi officials say is designed to spark a civil war between Iraq's majority Shi'ites and minority Sunnis.
A senior Shi'ite official has said residents of Madaen called him on Friday night saying their relatives had been kidnapped and were threatened with death.
On Saturday, state-run Iraqiya television said the gunmen had threatened to start killing the 150 hostages within 24 hours.
Distraught Iraqis who said their relatives were among those who had been abducted gathered outside Madaen.
"Where are they? Where are they?" asked Zuhra Chaloub, holding up pictures of two sons she said were abducted in Salman Pak, a Sunni rebel stronghold adjacent to Madaen.
A masked policeman with an AK-47 stood by the crowd of about 20 people.
Aboud Hussein said one of his sons, a policeman, was taken from Salman Pak and two others were dragged from their cars on their way home from work. 
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