BAGHDAD, May 6 (Reuters) - The woman was walking down a narrow sidestreet in a Sunni district of Baghdad on Sunday morning when suddenly a man got out of a car and walked over to her.

He grabbed her arm. The woman tried to brush him off, but the man pulled out a pistol, cocked it, and raised his voice menacingly: "Get inside the car. Come on."

There was no security of any kind in sight.

I was a few feet away, a passenger in a car moving down the narrow road in the residential area at slow speed. My window was open. I heard the gun being cocked and saw it shoved against the woman's stomach. She was being kidnapped in front of my eyes.

The woman appeared to be in her mid 30s. Her hair was not covered, but she was dressed modestly. She had a handbag over her shoulder.

She looked terrified. She did not scream or shout, as if she knew there was nothing she could do.

The man -- who had not even bothered to wear a mask -- pushed her into the waiting car.

By now, my car had gone past. I looked back. The kidnapper's driver turned the car around and drove off in the opposite direction to which I was heading.

Several other people on the street, lined with small shops, had turned to watch the departing vehicle. They clearly saw what was happening. No one did anything.

I felt helpless. But what could I, or anyone else, do? The man probably would have shot anyone who intervened.

Iraq is like that. Kidnapping is rampant.

Criminal gangs carry out abductions for ransom. Militant groups do it to spread fear -- those seized often turn up dead days later, their bodies showing signs of torture.

While the kidnapping of a foreigner makes headlines, those of Iraqis go largely unnoticed.

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