An Iraqi militant group said in an internet video on Saturday it kidnapped a U.S. civilian contractor last month and was negotiating the release of the body of another.
The video surfaced shortly after a U.S. defense department statement said civilian employee Issa T. Salomi, 60, of El Cajon, California, had been missing since Jan. 23 and a search launched to find him.
The government is carrying out many violations against us
The unnamed man in the video is pictured against a black flag bearing the name of the League of the Righteous, Asaib al-Haq, the Shiite militant group that kidnapped British IT expert Peter Moore and his bodyguards in Baghdad in May 2007.
A senior leader of the militia said the abducted contractor was seized because the government was not keeping a promise to free his group’s supporters from prison.
Such a deal was widely believed to have been behind the release by the same group of British computer programmer Peter Moore in December after 2-1/2 years in captivity, despite Iraqi and British government denials of a link.
"The government is carrying out many violations against us," the militant leader told Reuters, asking not to be identified.
The abducted contractor said in the video he was in good health and was being treated kindly. He wore a U.S. military uniform and spoke in English.
He said his captors demanded the release of all detained members of their group, and that guards of the U.S. security firm Blackwater be prosecuted for a shooting at a Baghdad traffic circle in 2007 in which 14 Iraqi civilians died.
Asaib al-Haq also demanded the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraqi soil. Around 115,000 U.S. soldiers remain in Iraq, almost seven years after the invasion that ousted Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein.
The U.S. military in Iraq declined to comment on the video.
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