US and Iraqi authorities were searching today for three Americans who were kidnapped in Baghdad, the latest group of foreign nationals abducted in recent months.
Kidnappers have recently seized Qataris and Turks, but it has been years since Americans were abducted, and Iraqis have suffered the most from kidnappers seeking ransoms or to settle scores.
The Islamic State group, which overran large areas in 2014, has abducted thousands of people and carried out a slew of executions, while Shiite paramilitary forces opposed to the jihadists have also carried out kidnappings and killings.
Iraqi parliament speaker Salim al-Juburi condemned the rise in "cases of foreigners being kidnapped in Iraq," saying it would harm the country's relations with other states.
"The kidnapping of the American citizens yesterday, and before them the Qatari hunters, whose fate is still unknown, without a doubt indicates the increasing work of organised gangs in Iraq," Juburi said in a statement.
US State Department spokesman John Kirby said the day before that: "We are aware of reports that American citizens are missing in Iraq."
"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.
The colonel said today that the search was at this point mainly an intelligence effort.
The officer earlier said that according to information he had received, the kidnappers were militiamen wearing military uniforms.
"We don't know what their work is," the colonel said of the kidnapped Americans.
Iraq turned to paramilitary forces dominated by Iran-backed Shiite militias to help combat the Islamic State jihadist group, which overran large parts of the country in 2014.
These groups, which fall under an umbrella organisation known as the Hashed al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilisation units, have played a key role in the fight against the jihadists.
But they have also been accused of abuses including summary executions, kidnappings and destruction of property.
The US is leading a coalition of countries that have bombed thousands of IS targets in Iraq and Syria and which are providing training to Baghdad's forces.
