3 missing Americans in Baghdad kidnapped from brothel

Photo taken on Jan. 18, 2016 shows tight security in the checkpoint in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad after three persons with U.S. citizenship were kidnapped while they were inside a brothel apartment in al-Saha neighborhood in Doura district, Baghdad, Iraq. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood) 

BAGHDAD, Jan. 18 -- Three American contractors went missing in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad were kidnapped from a brothel apartment, while Iraqi security forces carried out a search operation, security sources said on Monday.

Brigadier General Saad Maan, spokesman of Baghdad Operations Command, told reporters here that the three persons with U.S. citizenship were kidnapped while they were inside a brothel apartment in al-Saha neighborhood in Doura district.

Iraqi security forces have carried out a search campaign in the surrounding neighborhoods, looking for the kidnapped, while an investigation has been launched into the incident, said Maan whose command is responsible for security in the Iraqi capital.

An Interior Ministry source told Xinhua that information about the incident so far is very rare and restricted, but he said that the security forces have deployed in several areas in Baghdad and set up checkpoints on main streets as part of the search operation.

Late on Sunday, local Iraqi news agency NINA quoted unnamed sources as saying that the three Americans were at the house of a translator in the southern district of Doura, Baghdad, when a group of gunmen wearing military uniforms stormed the house and took them away.

It said that the translator who invited the three Americans to his house was also abducted.

Earlier, U.S. media reports said that the three missing were Iraqis who had acquired U.S. citizenship and were kidnapped from an apartment well-known in southern Baghdad as a brothel and is subject to frequent raids by Shiite militias, including the Iran-backed Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq.

Also on Monday, Iraqi Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jubouri said in a statement that "the increasing abductions for foreigners in Iraq is adding complication to the Iraqi scene, as the kidnapping of Americans, and before them Qatari hunters whom their destiny is still unknown, would undoubtedly refers to the growing of organized gangs in Iraq."

Late on Monday night, the pan-Arab news channel Al Arabiya reported that three Americans were kidnapped in Baghdad, without giving further details, but mentioned that the U.S. State Department said they are aware of the report and are working with the Iraqi authorities to locate and recover them.