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Iraqi militants post video of kidnapped US citizen
[Iran Press TV Latest] An Iraqi militant group says they kidnapped a US citizen because the Iraqi government reneged on its promise to obtain the release of members of the group held in US-run prisons and arrested more of its members. On Saturday, the League of the Righteous said they abducted US military contractor Issa T. Salomi, 60, a US citizen of Iraqi origin. The Pentagon said he went missing in Baghdad on January 23. "This is a direct response to the arrests of leaders of our group two weeks ago," an unidentified member of the group said. "We will resume attacks against the occupiers and this abduction is the first of our actions," he added. An almost two-minute Internet video showed the captive man, wearing a US military uniform, reading out the group's demands for the release of detainees who had "resisted occupation" and "never been involved in any serious crime against their fellow innocent Iraqis." Salomi, pictured against a black flag bearing the militant group's name, also called for the conviction of employees of US security firm Blackwater, since renamed Xe Services, accused of killing unarmed Iraqi citizens in the capital's Nisoor Square in 2007. "The second demand is to bring the proper justice and the proper punishment to those members of the Blackwater company who have committed unjustifiable crimes against innocent Iraqi citizens," he said in the video. "I also would like to relay the justifiable demand of the Iraqi Islamic resistance for the complete withdrawal from Iraq, so that Iraq can become a sovereign nation." This is the first high-profile kidnapping of a foreigner in Iraq since the same group kidnapped British IT expert Peter Moore and his four bodyguards, also Britons, in Baghdad almost three years ago. Posted by: Fred 2010-02-07 |
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