By the third day of negotiating with his son’s kidnappers, Rasul Amoore had sold his car, withdrawn his bank savings and borrowed money from his siblings and friends to raise funds for the six-year-old’s release.

Even then he was able to gather only $8,000 (£5,000) of the $50,000 demanded by Ahmed’s captors. The kidnappers eventually dropped their ransom to $20,000 — still more than twice the amount at the disposal of Mr Amoore — after the confectionery shop owner in east Baghdad pleaded that their information about his supposed wealth was untrue.

Mr Amoore, angered and mentally tormented by the kidnappers, decided to gamble with his son’s life. “Just kill him,” said the father of four during a heated telephone negotiation with the lead captor. “Just kill him and I’ll consider that I’ve given his soul as a gift to God.”

Four hours later the kidnappers released Ahmed unharmed, but only after receiving $10,000.

Kidnapping has overtaken burglaries, robberies, car theft and other crimes to become the biggest criminal activity in many areas of Baghdad. Insurgents and gangsters are increasingly using abducted children to raise funds for terrorism operations and personal wealth.

These days, money has become the main motive for kidnappers, unlike the period of civil unrest in Baghdad in 2006 and 2007 when people were being captured and killed for sectarian reasons, according to Brigadier-General Faisal Malik Mohsin, the commander of the Iraqi Federal Police’s al-Rasheed district in southwest Baghdad. Women are playing a greater role in the kidnappings because they are less likely to rouse suspicion, he said.

They are paid by gangs to abduct the children, but negotiations for their return are handled by male gang leaders.

Children from wealthy neighbourhoods, such as Palestine Street and Zayouna in eastern Baghdad and Mansoor in the western part of the city, are the main targets. Posters of missing children have become common in such areas.

Children from unstable neighbourhoods are also in danger. In areas close to Sadr City, several children were found beheaded and dumped in the rubbish after their parents failed to come up with ransom payments.

“They once kidnapped to kill for sectarian reasons and now kidnapping for generating money ... and to also finance terrorist acts,” General Mohsin said.

He said that insurgents had turned to kidnappings after a clampdown by the police and army on the inflow of foreign funding for terrorism operations. Organised crime gangs were choosing kidnappings over robberies because they were “easy and lucrative”, with such activity making up more than 50 per cent of all criminal cases.

Despite the seven sleepless nights that the family of Ahmed spent waiting for his return, the boy’s story is one of success.

Many of the kidnappings go unreported, but the Ministry of Interior said that fewer than 10 per cent of the reported 265 children kidnapped this year were saved by police.

Muhsin Mohammed Muhsin, 11, was dumped on a rubbish site last month with his throat slit and hands severed because his family could not meet a ransom of $100,000 in 48 hours. His father, Mohammed Muhsin, told The Times: “Three days after they dumped my son’s dead body two other youngsters’ bodies were found in the same place — one of them a child with his eyes gouged out.”

Mr Muhsin, a mechanic from Sadr City, went to the police but has decided to investigate the murder on his own because of his lack of faith in the authorities. His view is shared by Mr Amoore, who did not bother to call the police because he feared that they would make matters worse by opening yet another futile criminal investigation.

“I did not contact the police because I have no faith in the police. They would not have solved the case — they never do,” he said. Instead, he distributed posters with a picture of Ahmed in his neighbourhood and nearby suburbs, giving the boy’s name, age and a telephone number.

Kidnappers bank on people’s lack of trust in the police. Confident that families of missing children will not rush to the authorities for help, they contact the parents from identifiable telephone numbers when negotiating on the release conditions.

In Diyala, north of Baghdad, police have set up awareness campaigns urging families of missing children to appeal to the authorities for help. Major Ghalib al-Joubri, the police spokesman in Diyala province, said that his office had since received tip-offs on planned kidnappings.

“We’re encouraging people to report kidnappings and we are receiving a lot of co-operation,” he said. “Sometimes, they even pre-report crimes.”

He said that this year they had managed to save 18 of the 19 people kidnapped in the province.

The fears about child abductions come after a warning last month from Major-General Qassim al-Moussawi, the Baghdad security spokesman, that former insurgents were responsible for 60 to 70 per cent of criminal activities in the country.

“After the success our forces have had in tightening the noose on insurgent groups, we are seeing that some of them are turning to form wellorganised criminal gangs,” he said.

Mr Amoore, whose son was abducted while sitting on a palm tree trunk in front of the family home, said that abductions were rife in his neighbourhood. “There are kidnappings every day now and it’s very frightening that some people are making a business out of it,” he said.

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