Government officials in Iraq today said around 70 people kidnapped from a scientific research institute in Baghdad yesterday had been released.
Initial reports suggested that up to 150 people had been abducted in the raid, although officials earlier today revised that number downwards.
In the latest assessment, an education ministry spokesman told the Associated Press that 70 people had been released.
However, officials remain uncertain how many of the men snatched by gunmen from the institute in the Karrada district remained captive.
The Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, said the people responsible for the mass kidnapping would be arrested. "We will chase those who did this ugly criminal act," he told AP.
As many as 80 armed men wearing police uniforms took part in the attack, in which male academics, employees and visitors to the institute were abducted. Five senior Iraqi police officers were arrested overnight.
Meanwhile, a car bomb killed exploded at a petrol station in central Baghdad today, killing 11 people and injuring 33 as violence continued to rage throughout Iraq.
The explosion happened near the interior ministry, a frequent target of Sunni insurgents who accuse the ministry and police of being in league with Shia militias.
Outside the capital, four US soldiers were killed in Anbar province, one of the most volatile areas of western Iraq, yesterday. The soldiers died from wounds suffered in "enemy action" the US military said.
The deaths brought the number of US military personnel killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion began to 2,856.
Associated Press also reported that gunmen had shot two journalists dead, one in the northern city of Mosul and another in Baquba, north-east of Baghdad.
With the US reassessing its strategy in Iraq, France today said the international community must come up with a timetable for troop withdrawal, but warned against an immediate pullout.
"Personally, I think that if [forces] left straight away it would be even worse, but we need a timetable for retreat," the French foreign minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, told France 2 television.
"We also need the responsibility for security to be transferred to the Iraqis."
The US president, George Bush, said he was open to "fresh perspectives" after the Republicans lost control of Congress in last week's midterm elections.
However, Mr Bush has made clear his opposition to calls from the Democrats for any timetable for withdrawal.
He is also unenthusiastic about suggestions that help in stabilising Iraq should be sought from Syria and Iran - an idea being pushed by Tony Blair.
The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, said she did not see "anything about Iranian behaviour that suggests that they are prepared to contribute to stability in Iraq".