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Three U.S. citizens who disappeared last week in Baghdad were kidnapped and are being held by an Iranian-backed Shi'ite militia, two Iraqi intelligence and two U.S. government sources said on Tuesday. The U.S. sources said Washington had no reason to believe Tehran was involved in the kidnapping and does not believe the trio are being held in Iran, which borders Iraq. "They were abducted because they are Americans, not for personal or financial reasons," one of the Iraqi intelligence sources in Baghdad said.

The White House denied Tuesday that the U.S. paid Iran $1.7 billion as ransom to gain the release of American prisoners, saying the payment settled a long-running claim by Tehran over military equipment. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the payment last weekend was “a very good deal for taxpayers” because Iran was actually seeking interest payments of up to $8 billion for the decades-old claim. “Our exposure when it came to paying interest could have been much higher,” Mr. Earnest said. A spokeswoman for Speaker Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, criticized the administration for paying “ransom” to gain the...

The following preliminary timeline of the events surrounding the Iranian detainment of 10 U.S. Navy Sailors from January 12-13, 2016, is based upon multiple operational reports received by U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) in the first 24-48 hours after the incident. A Navy command investigation initiated on Jan. 14, will provide a more complete accounting of events.

Three Americans have been kidnapped in Baghdad by "militias," according to Arab news channel Al Arabiya, citing its own sources. The State Department said it is aware of the report and is working with Iraqi authorities to locate the missing Americans. Officials, however, would not confirm that anyone been kidnapped. "We are aware of reports that American citizens are missing in Iraq," State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement to The Hill. "The safety and security of American citizens overseas is our highest priority, he continued. "We are working with the full cooperation of the Iraqi authorities to...

Three American contractors are missing in Iraq, a senior security official in Baghdad says. "A company filed a report Sunday about three of its staff going missing. ... They are American contractors. We are looking into this report," the official told CNN. Separately, an Iraqi security official with knowledge of the case said that two of the contractors are dual Iraqi-American citizens and that the third is an American national. Gunmen grabbed the men at an apartment in Baghdad's southeastern Dora neighborhood late Friday afternoon, the source said.

Earlier today, my colleague Leon Wolf, commented on the authoritarian tendencies of the most devoted Trump supporters. Now we have evidence of the megalomania that feeds the authoritarian response. Republican primary front-runner Donald Trump on Saturday said his rhetoric condemning the Iranian regime played an integral part in securing the release of four U.S. prisoners. “So I’ve been hitting them hard, and I think I might have had something to do with it,” Trump said at the South Carolina Tea Party Convention in Myrtle Beach, S.C. “You want to know the truth, who’s using it? It’s a part of my...

Al-Aribiya is reporting that three Americans have been kidnapped by militia in Baghdad. ***snip*** Via The Independent: According to Arab news channel Al-Arabiya, well-informed sources in Baghdad have confirmed that the kidnapping took place, although the story is yet to be verified. The identities of the kidnapped Americans or the militias have not yet been confirmed. It seems that Iran has revalidated a long-standing business model used in that part of the world for a few thousand years: kidnap for ransom. It seems much more than a coincidence that after the United States gave up seven prisoners doing time for...

This is really bad. From the Associated Press: BAGHDAD (AP) — The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad confirms that “several” Americans are missing in Iraq after local media reported that three Americans had been kidnapped in the Iraqi capital. U.S. Embassy spokesman Scott Bolz said Sunday that “We are working in full cooperation with Iraqi authorities to locate the missing Americans.” His comments came after the Arab news channel, al-Arabiya, citing its own sources, reported that three Americans had been kidnapped by militias in Baghdad. The incident comes after a week that has seen a deterioration of security in and around...

TEHRAN - Iran announced Saturday that it had released four Iranian-Americans as part of a prisoner exchange with the United States. The announcement from the judiciary on state television did not identify the four, but Iranian news media said they included Jason Rezaian, The Washington Post’s Tehran correspondent; Amir Hekmati, a Marine veteran; and Saeed Abedini, a pastor. There were discrepancies in the Iranian reports about the identity of the fourth prisoner. It was not immediately clear whom the Americans released, but Iranian reports said seven Iranians were freed. The exchange was apparently orchestrated to coincide with the expected announcement...

To paraphrase Michelle Obama, after seven years of her husband's being in office, I can safely say many of us are, for the first time in our lives, ashamed to be Americans. His disingenuous State of the Union speech last night was one reminder of this; the seizing of two Navy riverine vessels by Iranian Revolutionary Guards yesterday was another. The ten sailors on board those boats are lucky. News agencies have announced that they have just been released. According to CNN, "the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and U.S. officials appear to be at odds over whether the U.S. apologized...

ice President Joe Biden told CBS New the U.S. did not apologize to Iran after the country released ten Navy sailors it had abducted on Tuesday night. “When you have a problem with the boat, (do) you apologize the boat had a problem? No,” he explained. “And there was no looking for any apology. This was just standard nautical practice.” The vice president explained that the “the Iranians picked up both boats — as we have picked up Iranian boats that needed to be rescued.” Iranian officials then “realized they were there in distress and said they would release them,...

Iran has released 10 US sailors after holding them overnight, bringing a swift end to an incident that had rattled nerves days ahead of the expected implementation of a landmark nuclear accord between Tehran and world powers. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had freed the sailors on Wednesday after determining they had entered Iranian territorial waters by mistake. The sailors had been detained aboard two US Navy patrol boats in the Gulf on Tuesday. "Our technical investigations showed the two US Navy boats entered Iranian territorial waters inadvertently," the IRGC said in a statement carried by state...

American hostages held in Iran will get up to $4m compensation each from the US government - 36 years after ordeal The former 1979 American hostages in Iran will get financial compensation after US lawmakers included a payment provision in spending legislation The men and women were taken hostage by militant Iranian student groups at the US embassy spending 444 days in captivity They will be given restitution of up to $4.4million each, or $10,000 for each day they were held There were 66 original captives in the Iran hostage crisis with 13 released in November 1979, and one was...

A joint Afghan-U.S. special forces operation freed at least 40 Afghan prisoners from a Taliban prison in the southern Helmand province, authorities said Friday. The troops carried out a helicopter assault on the prison in Nawzad district Thursday night, according to a statement from U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The operation freed 40 prisoners, who were captured Afghan police, army and border police. No U.S. ground forces were involved in the raid, Fox News confirmed.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.581113805374243.1073741831.230145907137703&type=3 thqt picture was taken in Paris when Obama was there letting ISIL take over the world

ISLAMABAD: Eight “high value terrorists” wanted by Pakistan and other countries are holed up inside Lal Masjid, while another was killed by security forces in the ongoing operation, Religious Affairs Minister Ejazul Haq said on Sunday. “Nine suspected terrorists said to be far more dangerous and harmful than Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives were hiding inside the mosque compound,” Haq told a press conference here. Haq said that the militants and not Abdul Rashid Ghazi, Lal Masjid’s deputy chief cleric, were controlling the mosque. “The militants are holding children and Ghazi hostage,” he said. He said that about 500 male...

DEVELOPING: Reuters is reporting that a hostage situation in the northern French town of Roubaix, near the Belgium border, is taking place. Shots reportedly have been fired and medical services personnel have been called to the scene.

A group of armed men are said to have taken hostages in the northern French town of Roubaix near the border with Belgium, reports say. A police operation is under way and an area of the town has been cordoned off. Local media said the incident took place at around 19:00 local time (18:00 GMT). The incident does not appear to be related to the ongoing security situation in France following the 13 November attacks in Paris. Gunshots were fired, according to reports and local residents. The armed men may have been planning a robbery, reports say.

Muslim terrorists opened fire on an upscale hotel on Friday in the city of Bamako, the capital of the western African state of Mali. The jihadists used automatic weapons according to security sources, and apparently have taken people hostage in the Radisson Blu Hotel. Some reports indicate that at least three people have died in the attack. The luxury hotel, which has 190 rooms, is a popular site for Western officials according to French-language media. According to the French RFI radio, the attack was launched by three assailants who entered the hotel with diplomatic cars. Security forces have set up...

Gunmen have taken 170 hostages, killing three so far at the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali's capital Bamako. The gunmen are reported to be releasing people that can recite verses from the Quran. Automatic weapon fire was heard from outside the 190-room hotel in the city-centre where security forces have set up a security cordon, according to Agence France Presse. Security sources told AFP the gunmen were "jihadists" who had entered the hotel compound in a car that had diplomatic plates. "It's all happening on the seventh floor, jihadists are firing in the corridor," one security source said. Malian soldiers,...