Missing US Contractor Issa Salomi Paraded by Terrorist Group

The League of the Righteous, an Iranian-supported terrorist group that held a British man hostage for more than two years in Iraq, has kidnapped an American military contractor who wandered off base in Baghdad. The group said that it was holding Issa Salomi, 60, an Iraqi-American who was visiting relatives in the Karrada district of central Baghdad when he disappeared two weeks ago. In a video posted on the internet by the League he was shown dressed in a military uniform and reading a text calling for the release of Iraqi prisoners and denouncing America. Under the agreement that paved the way for the release of the British hostage Peter Moore in December, politically motivated kidnappings were meant to come to an end and the League was invited to participate in the legitimate political process. Talks between the Shia extremist group and the Shia-led Government broke down. A few weeks ago the League protested that several of its members had been arrested by the Iraqi security forces. The League started several years ago as an offshoot of the Sadrist movement led by the radical cleric Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr. He hopes to regain control of the group and any representation in parliament that it may gain.