Baghdad, Iraq ? Gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms kidnapped more than two dozen workers from the Baghdad offices of the Red Crescent humanitarian group Sunday, and the U.S. military announced the deaths of three more American soldiers.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, visiting Iraq for the sixth time since the 2003 invasion, appealed for international support for Iraq and said the bloodshed was being carried out “by the very forces worldwide who are trying to prevent moderation.”

“Our task – ours, the Americans, the whole of the coalition, the international community and the Iraqis themselves – is to make sure that the forces of terrorism don’t defeat the will of the people to have a democracy,” Blair said.

The gunmen pulled up to the Red Crescent building in downtown Baghdad about 11:30 a.m. in two police cars and 20 other cars, a spokesman for the medical group said Sunday. Staff members thought the men were police and allowed them to enter the building, he said.

Once inside, the kidnappers separated men from women and abducted an estimated 28 men, according to the spokesman. The kidnapped included Red Crescent staff, visitors and three guards from the Dutch Embassy, which has been vacated but still shares space with the office, he said.

Red Crescent staff called the Iraqi ministries of interior and defense and were told neither had troops in the area, said the spokesman, who requested anonymity due to safety concerns.

“We do not suspect anyone, as we are a humanitarian organization that does no harm to any bloc,” he said.

Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair, center, talks with British troops Sunday in Basra, southern Iraq. Blair said Britain's aim remained to hand over control of Basra and the other provinces it controls in the south to Iraqi forces as soon as they are capable of maintaining security, and appealed for international support for Iraq's fragile government.

The Red Crescent, which is affiliated with the International Committee of the Red Cross, has about 1,000 staff and 200,000 volunteers in Iraq, providing food, water and medicine.

The U.S. military announced Sunday that three U.S. soldiers stationed in Baghdad were killed Saturday by a roadside bomb while on a combat mission north of the capital.

The toll raised to 57 the number of Americans killed in Iraq in December. At least 2,945 members of the U.S. military have died since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

During the 24 hours ending Sunday night, Baghdad police found 36 bodies, all shot several times; some handcuffed, blindfolded and tortured, according to the Interior Ministry.

Also on Sunday, Iraqi leaders followed up on recommendations from a reconciliation conference in the capital the day before, promising to meet again in about two months.

“Through accordance, pure intentions and actual work, we will be able to translate some of what have been mentioned yesterday into realistic accomplishments,” said Nasir Ani, head of the political office of the Iraqi Islamic Party, a mainly Sunni Arab group.

Sunni militias killed at least one woman Sunday in attacks on two villages near Taji, about 20 miles north of Baghdad, Taji police said. Militia members, mainly former fedayeen fighters for Saddam Hussein’s former regime, had been sniping and shooting mortar shells into the area for the past four days, the police said.

The insurgents set up makeshift checkpoints and burned a house in an effort to evict residents, police said, adding that the woman who was killed had refused to leave.