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Iran-linked groups focus of Baghdad kidnapping
probe: U.S. sources
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U.S.
intelligence agencies investigating the kidnapping of three Americans in
Baghdad, Iraq last week are focusing their probe on three groups closely
affiliated with the Iranian regime, U.S. government sources said on Thursday.
Asaib
Ahl al-Haq, Kata’ib Hezbollah and the Badr Organization are the principle focus
of the investigation into the armed kidnapping of the three Americans in the
Dora neighborhood, south of Baghdad, the sources said.
The
three men are employed by a still-unidentified small company doing work for
General Dynamics under a larger contract with the U.S. Army.
Asaib
Ahl al-Haq, Kata’ib Hezbollah and the Badr Organization are Shi’ite militia
groups that are part of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Front, a group closely tied
to Iran, according to the Counter Terrorism Project, a New York-based advocacy
group.
