Gunmen are said to have kidnapped six people from an office in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, including an American, an Asian and four Iraqis.
Police said that the nationality of the Asian person taken from the offices of the Saudi Arabian Trading and Contracting Company was not known.
A security guard and one of the kidnappers were reported to have been killed in clashes as the gunmen entered the office building in the affluent Mansour district of Baghdad.
Deputy Governor of Baghdad killed
Separately in Baghdad, the Deputy Governor of the city, Hatem Karim, has been killed in a gun attack carried out by militants.
Mr Karim was targeted in a drive-by shooting in the southern Dora district of the city.
The Army of Ansar al-Sunna, an Iraqi militant group, has claimed responsibility for the attack, which also left four of Mr Karim's bodyguards wounded.
Allawi pledges to restore control
Elsewhere, the Iraqi Prime Minister, Ilyad Allawi, has pledged to restore government control in the insurgent-held city of Fallujah.
His comments followed a rocket attack in Tikrit in northern Iraq yesterday which claimed the lives of 15 Iraqis and wounded eight other people.
Mr Allawi said military action in Fallujah could only be avoided if foreign fighters and insurgents left the city and handed over heavy and medium-sized weapons.
He said such a move would allow the government to begin the process of reconstruction.
