Iraqi Shiite group claims it is holding American hostage

BAGHDAD — An Iraqi Shiite group with close ties to Iran has claimed in a videotape Saturday it was holding an American hostage who is believed to be an El Cajon, Calif., man reported missing in Baghdad by the Pentagon.

A brief Defense Department statement Friday said that Issa T. Salomi, 60, who works as a civilian contractor, had been unaccounted for since Jan. 23.

The undated videotape posted on an Islamist Web site
shows a gray-haired man wearing U.S. military combat fatigues seated
beneath a black banner bearing the name Asaib al Haq — or League of the
Righteous. U.S. officials say the group, which has been linked to
previous abductions of British and U.S. contractors, is armed, trained
and funded by Iran.

In a brief statement accompanying the video, Asaib
al Haq claims it is holding the man as a result of a “kidnapping
operation” carried out in Baghdad.

It gives no further details, but the Associated
Press quoted an unnamed Iraqi defense official identifying the man as
Salomi and saying that he was abducted in the central Baghdad district of Karada after being lured to the area by his kidnappers.

If the kidnapping is confirmed, it will be the first abduction of a Westerner in Iraq since 2007, raising fears once again for the safety of foreigners in the country just as Iraq is hoping to open its doors to overseas investment.

The man, who does not give his name, calmly recites
what appears to be a memorized statement containing “justifiable
demands” addressed to the U.S. government in the name of “the Islamic
resistance of Iraq.”

He calls for the release of all Iraqi prisoners who
have not committed crimes against fellow Iraqis. He also demands
punishment for members of the security firm formerly known as
Blackwater for their “unjustifiable crimes against innocent Iraqi
citizens” and asks that their families be given compensation.

Blackwater, now called Xe, is embroiled in a legal
battle with the Iraqi government over the shooting deaths of at least
14 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad’s Nissour Square in September 2007,
as well as a number of other instances in which its guards are alleged
to have killed Iraqi civilians. The Obama administration has said it
will appeal the Dec. 31 dismissal by a federal judge of criminal charges against five of the guards.

The man opens his statement by extending “good
wishes” to his wife, family and friends and adds, “I am being treated
kindly and I am in good health.” He concludes by calling for the
withdrawal of all foreign forces in Iraq.

Asaib al Haq is a militant group that broke away from the Mahdi Army militia loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in the middle of the last decade, and refused to observe the Mahdi Army’s cease-fire declared in August 2007.

The group claimed responsibility for seizing five
British hostages in 2007, and is also suspected to be holding a U.S.
civilian contractor, Ahmed Taei.

One of the group’s leaders, Qais Khazali, was recently released from U.S. custody shortly after one of the British hostages, Peter Moore,
was freed. At the time, U.S. and Iraqi officials described the releases
as part of a “reconciliation” effort that they hoped would see Asaib al
Haq shun violence and participate in Iraq’s upcoming elections.

But the group recently warned that an agreement with
the government to refrain from violence was on the verge of collapse
because the government had not kept its promise to secure the release
of all detainees belonging to the group.

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