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Eighty hostages kidnapped at the building of the Higher Education Ministry on Tuesday are still held, Minister Abed Thiyab al-Ajili said on Thursday.

The minister told the state television that 70 of 150 hostages were released, saying those freed "were tortured."

Al-Ajili, a Sunni Arab, also reaffirmed that he would continue the suspension of his job in the Shiite-dominated government until the rest were released.

Earlier, a spokesman for the ministry told reporters that kidnappers tortured and killed some of the captives.

"According to the released captives, some of hostages were tortured and killed," Basil al-Khatib said.

Al-Khatib did not say how many people were killed, but he said that the released people themselves were tortured.

On Wednesday, he said that up to 70 people have been released.

However, the government gave different hostage numbers.

An Interior Ministry official told Xinhua on Wednesday that the number of hostages in the hands of kidnappers was exaggerated.

"About 20 out of some 45 hostages have been released until midnight, including the deputy director of the ministry's Research Directorate," the official said on condition of anonymity.

Also on Thursday, unidentified gunmen stormed a small coffee shop in central Baghdad, kidnapping 15 to 20 customers, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.

The abduction occurred at about 9:10 PM (18:10 GMT) when gunmen in several cars attacked the coffee shop in Wattawin, a mixed neighborhood in central Baghdad, the anonymous source said.

"According to the latest report, 15 to 20 customers in the coffee shop are snatched," the source added.

(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily November 17, 2006)