The names of the three Americans kidnapped in Baghdad were released today.
Amro Mohamed, Wael al-Mahdawi, and Rusul Farad, a woman, were kidnapped by Shiite militiamen in Baghdad. The group may be tied to the Iranian regime.
The Washington Post reported:
Three Americans reported missing from a Baghdad neighborhood were kidnapped by militiamen from an apartment in the capital on Saturday, a senior police official and resident of the building said.
A statement from Baghdad Operations Command on Monday confirmed that “three people with American citizenship” were kidnapped in the capital.
A Baghdad police colonel, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said that the Americans are employed as contractors at the Baghdad International Airport. He did not say which company employed the individuals.
Another police official in Baghdad, a major general also speaking on condition of anonymity, gave the names of the abducted individuals as Amro Mohamed, Wael al-Mahdawi, and Rusul Farad, a woman. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad did not respond to a request to verify the names. Two senior security officials said that the missing Americans are of Iraqi origin.
The three Americans appear to have been seized by Shiite militiamen in the Dora neighborhood in southern Baghdad, the police colonel said. The area from which they were taken is controlled by Shiite militias, including the Iran-backed Asai’b Ahl al-Haq, or League of the Righteous, he said.
The colonel said that the group had been invited to the home of their Iraqi interpreter.
