Three Americans abducted
Two Shiite militias are suspected after a kidnapping in Iraq.
baghdad» Two powerful Shiite militias are suspected in the abduction of three Americans last weekend in a southern neighborhood of the Iraqi capital, an Iraqi police commander and a Western security official said Thursday.
The Americans were abducted in Dora, a mixed neighborhood that is home to Shiites and Sunnis, on Saturday.
It was the latest in a series of brazen high-profile kidnappings undermining confidence in the Iraqi government’s ability to control state-sanctioned Shiite militias, which have grown in strength as Iraqi security forces battle the Islamic State.
Two Shiite militias — Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Saraya al-Salam — were likely behind the attack, the Iraqi and Western official told The Associated Press.
“Nobody can do anything in that neighborhood without the approval of those militias,” the police commander said. The Western security official confirmed that Iraqi and U.S. intelligence assessments had narrowed the suspects to those the two groups.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity.
One of the militias named as a suspect is backed by Iran, a key ally of Iraqi Prime Minister Hayder al-Abadi’s government.
Al-Abadi said Thursday that he doubts that there is an Iranian link to the kidnapping, adding, “We don’t know if they have been kidnapped. ... They just went missing.”
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has confirmed that several Americans are missing and said they are working with Iraqi authorities to locate them.
Speaking at Davos, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he was working with Iraq on the issue.
He said he also had been in touch with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif to request help. He said Zarif had replied that he would do what he can but that he had no “immediate knowledge whatsoever” about the incident.
Baghdad authorities said the three Americans were kidnapped from a “suspicious apartment,” without elaborating, and have provided no other details. There has been no claim of responsibility.
The identities of the three were not made public, and the two officials — the Iraqi commander and the Western official — did not elaborate on the investigation that is underway.
Another Iraqi intelligence official told The Associated Press this week that from the Dora neighborhood the Americans were taken to Sadr City, a vast and densely populated Shiite district to the east, and there “all communication ceased.”
Lt. Gen. Abdul-Ghani al-Asadi, commander of Iraq’s elite counter-terrorism forces, said his men are aiding in the search, which he said is focusing on “certain areas” of Baghdad.
He declined to give a more specific location.