OPINION:
The day after Iran released American hostages held for years and the Obama administration in turn released convicted felons in prison in the United States, three American contractors have been kidnapped in Iraq, reports AFP.
“We are aware of reports that American citizens are missing in Iraq,” U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said.
“We are working with the full cooperation of the Iraqi authorities to locate and recover the individuals,” Kirby added, without providing details about their number or the circumstances of their disappearance.
An Iraqi police colonel said on condition of anonymity that three Americans and an Iraqi translator were kidnapped in southern Baghdad, and that Iraqi forces have launched an operation to find them.
The officer said that according to information he had received, the kidnappers were militiamen wearing military uniforms. Iraq has been under the strong influence of Iran after the abdication of American leadership in the country. Shia, Iranian-backed militias have been used to combat the Islamic State in the region but have also caused much mischief.
“We don’t know what their work is,” the colonel said of the kidnapped Americans.
Analysts have suspected that the kidnappings are the work of hardliners in Iran who are bent on Iranian hegemony in the Middle East. The abductions come as a slap in the face to the Obama administration, which this weekend the president spoke of new relations with Iran and a “safer world.”
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