American Abducted in Iraq

An American man, Issa T. Salomi, who went missing from Baghdad January 23, appears to be in a video posted online by an Iraqi Shia militant group, the Associated Press reports. Salomi, 60, was working as a contractor with the U.S. military when he disappeared. In the video, the man (who does not say his name) says his kidnappers from the League of the Righteous are demanding the release of militants as well as the prosecution of the five Blackwater private contractors accused of killing 17 Iraqi civilians in 2007 and money for the victims’ families. An Iraqi defense official said Salomi, who is of Iraqi origin, was lured by the group to Karradah, a central district of Baghdad, under the pretense of visiting distant relatives.