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U.S. NEWS A3
Tuesday 19 January 2016
Abduction of Americans in Iraq raises fears about security
SUSANNAH GEORGE said at the time that the Iraqi security forces deploy in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. Iraqi security forces fanned
Associated Press abduction was “to achieve out across the Baghdad neighborhood Monday morning where three Americans were reportedly
WASHINGTON/BAGHDAD political and media goals,” kidnapped over the weekend, closing streets and conducting house-to-house searches.
(AP) — The abduction of without providing further
three Americans from a details. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)
Baghdad apartment over Baghdad authorities said
the weekend is the latest in a statement that the mer of 2014 and proving ground in Iraq. sanctioned and known as
in a series of brazen high- three Americans were kid-
profile kidnappings under- napped from a “suspicious to be some of the most ef- The government-allied the Popular Mobilization
mining confidence in the apartment” without elabo-
Iraqi government’s ability rating, and have provided fective anti-IS forces on the militias are now officially Committees.q
to control state-sanctioned no other details.
Shiite militias that have The U.S. Embassy con-
grown in strength as Iraqi firmed Sunday that “sever-
security forces battle the al” Americans went missing
Islamic State group. in Iraq, after local media
Witnesses said men in uni- reported that three Ameri-
form carried out the kid- cans had been kidnapped
napping in broad daylight in the Iraqi capital. U.S. of-
Saturday, 100 yards (me- ficials have declined to
ters) from a police station. provide further details, and
“Gunmen in military uni- have neither identified the
forms came in five or six Americans nor said what
SUVs, they entered the they were doing in Iraq.
building and then left al- There were no immediate
most immediately,” said claims of responsibility. Be-
Mohammad Jabar, 35, sides Shiite militias, the per-
who runs a shop down the petrators of kidnappings
street from the three-story in Iraq have included the
apartment building where Islamic State group, as well
the Americans had been as criminal gangs demand-
invited by their Iraqi inter- ing ransom payments or
preter. disgruntled employees
“A few hours later we heard seeking to resolve work-
that three foreigners had place disputes.
been kidnapped by these The kidnapping of the
gunmen,” Jaber said. Americans comes at a time
The three were abducted of deteriorating security in
in Dora, a mixed neighbor- and around the Iraqi capi-
hood that is home to both tal after months of relative
Shiites and Sunnis. Howev- calm. Last week two Iraqi
er, they were then taken to journalists were killed within
Sadr City, a vast and dense- sight of a police check-
ly populated Shiite district point in Diyala province
to the east, and there “all north of Baghdad.
communication ceased,” The scale and sophistica-
an Iraqi intelligence official tion of the recent kidnap-
told The Associated Press. pings of foreigners suggest
The official spoke on condi- those responsible are op-
tion of anonymity because erating with some degree
he was not authorized to of impunity, said Nathaniel
speak to reporters. Rabkin, managing editor of
A similar scene unfolded in Inside Iraqi Politics, a politi-
September, when masked cal risk assessment newslet-
men in military uniforms ab- ter. “You kidnap 26 Qataris
ducted 18 Turkish workers out in the desert, that’s not
from a construction site in a like four or five yahoos out
Shiite neighborhood. A hos- in the south. ... That’s a
tage video later showed pretty well-run operation. It
the men standing before must be some relatively es-
a banner that read “Death tablished group that did it,”
Squads” and “Oh, Husse- he said.
in,” a Shiite religious slogan. The only groups operat-
The workers were released ing in Iraq with those ca-
later that month. pabilities, Rabkin said, are
In December, gunmen driv- the country’s powerful
ing SUVs raided a remote Shiite militias. Shiite militias
camp for falconry hunting have played a key role in
in Iraq’s overwhelmingly battling the Islamic State
Shiite south, kidnapping 26 group, filling a vacuum left
Qataris, who are still being by the collapse of the Iraqi
held. Iraq’s Interior Ministry security forces in the sum-
