Iraqi security forces launch hunt for three US citizens feared kidnapped
SECURITY forces in Baghdad are hunting for three US citizens who Iraqi lawmakers said had been kidnapped, which, if confirmed, would make them the first Americans abducted in the country since US troops withdrew in 2011.
Unknown gunmen seized the trio from a private apartment on Friday in the capital’s south-eastern Dora district, said Mohammed al-Karbouli, who sits on parliament’s security and defence panel. It was not immediately clear if their motives were political or criminal.
Iskandar Witwit, deputy head of the same panel, gave a similar account citing senior security officials who said the civilians had been taken from the district’s Sihha residential complex.
Iranian-backed Shi’ite Muslim militia fighters, seen as a bulwark in the fight against Islamic State (IS) militants, have a heavy presence in that part of the predominately Sunni district.
Mr Witwit said the three were employed by a private company and two of them also have Iraqi citizenship.
Dora was a bastion of the insurgency against the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and the site of intense sectarian blood-letting that peaked around 200607. Federal police now run most checkpoints there.
Baghdad has seen a proliferation in recent years of well-armed criminal gangs that carry out contract killings, kidnappings and extortion.
Iraqi police set up extra checkpoints in Dora and sent out helicopter search parties. Two Iraqi army helicopters were seen hovering over the district, while police vehicles patrolled the streets.
The US State Department said it was working with Iraqi authorities to locate Americans reported missing, without confirming they had been kidnapped.
The Iraqi government of Haider Al-Abadi has struggled to rein in the Shi’ite militias, many of which fought the US military following the 2003 invasion and have previously been accused of killing and abducting American nationals.
Iraq has seen a series of abductions of foreign nationals in recent months. At least 26 Qatari hunters kidnapped last month in the desert by unknown militants have not yet been found.