Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Wednesday ordered a crackdown on militia carrying out mass kidnappings in Iraq, as an official said two of dozens abducted in Baghdad are still being held.
Slamming kidnappers as "worse than extremists", Maliki said he regretted that "scientific professionals who are dedicating their lives for the country" were being targeted.
"I do not need only the captives to be released, but I also want those who did that act," Maliki said at Baghdad university during a visit to calm shocked professors and students after Tuesday's abductions.
The daring raid saw gunmen dressed in military-style uniforms arrive at the Sunni-controlled ministry of higher education building in Karrada district of Baghdad in about 20 cars and round up dozens of employees and visitors.
Most were freed in police operations during the night, according to Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh.
"Thirty-nine people were kidnapped of whom five were visitors, 16 were employees of the ministry and 18 were guards of the building," Dabbagh told AFP Wednesday.
"Twenty of them were released yesterday and 17 this morning. Two still continue to be held captive," he said.
Premier Maliki said on Wednesday he would not be lenient "with anyone."
"The country is full of such gangs and militias but this will not drive us back from chasing them," he said.
"Those who carried out the act are worse than takfiris (extremists) because they kidnapped intellectuals and prevented universities from executing their role."
Basil al-Khateeb, spokesman for the higher education ministry, told AFP that those freed had not turned up for work on Wednesday.
"Some called us or some called through their relatives. They said they will not be coming to work today as they are still in a state of shock," Khateeb said.
Maliki had on Tuesday told state television Al-Iraqiya that the kidnapping was the result of a "conflict between militias."
"What is happening is not terrorism but the result of a conflict between militias belonging to this side or that," Maliki said.
The interior ministry arrested five senior police officers from Karrada, the area where the crime occurred, saying they "should be held responsible."
The abduction came as Maliki faces growing criticism from his US backers for not doing more to rein in Shia militias with alleged links to the security forces.
Sunni Arab politicians and US authorities have repeatedly accused militias of targeting members of Iraq's minority community in the ongoing brutal sectarian conflict that has left thousands dead.
Iraq's leading Sunni clerics' organisation, the Muslim Scholars' Association, accused the Shia-led interior ministry of responsibility for the kidnapping.
"This cowardly act confirms what we have always warned and we blame the government and the interior ministry for this crime," it said.
In unabated violence, meanwhile, a powerful car bomb killed 12 people in the centre of strife-torn Baghdad, while 10 bullet-riddled bodies were found south of Baghdad, officials said Wednesday.
A security source said the blast occurred at 9:30 am (0630 GMT) at a fuel station which is close to one of the entrances to the interior ministry in central Baghdad.
Police also found 18 bodies in Iraq, including 10 in the town of Latifiyah, south of Baghdad, of men kidnapped earlier in the week from the central city of Diwaniyah.
The US military announced the deaths of four troops -- three marines and a soldier -- in the restive western province of Al-Anbar taking its losses since the invasion to 2,852 according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.
The interior ministry announced the arrest of an al Qaeda in Iraq operator, Abdulla Juburi, in an overnight raid Wednesday, which saw US forces parachuting on his house on the southern outskirts of Baghdad, while Iraqi forces launched a ground raid.
In Baquba, north-east of Baghdad, two civilians were shot dead by gunmen Wednesday, police said.