USA confirms kidnap of several Americans in Baghdad

U.S. embassy officials say they are working closely with the Iraqi authorities to find the group, who were seized on Friday evening.

The comments by USA officials came after the Arab news channel, al-Arabiya, citing its own sources, reported that three Americans had been kidnapped by militias in Baghdad.

Three US citizens have reportedly been kidnapped from south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

The State Department has also said that it was aware of the reports and working with Iraqi authorities to locate the missing individuals.

Since then, BBC Iraq correspondent Ahmed Maher says, there has been no claim of responsibility and the fate of those kidnapped remains unknown – a sign of how secretive and complicated the negotiation process is. We are looking into this report, a senior security official in Baghdad told CNN.

The only groups operating in Iraq with those capabilities, Rabkin said, are the country’s powerful Shiite militias. The area from which they were taken is controlled by Shiite militias, including the Iran-backed Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or League of the Righteous, he said.

An Iraqi intelligence official told the Associated Press that the men were taken to Sadr City, a predominantly Shia district in north-eastern Baghdad, while a policeman in Dora said they were driven towards the airport, south-east of the capital. Two of the three also had Iraqi citizenship, he said.

They were apparently taken to another area, as Dura was searched and they were not found, the officer said.

Iraq has witnessed a series of abductions of foreign nationals in recent months.

Last month, Iraqi troops pushed ISIS fighters out of the centre of Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar province in Iraq’s Sunni heartland.

Iraqi security forces guard at the entrance to the Green Zone in Baghdad in October.

Those militias are supposed to serve as security forces, under the direct control of Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi.