The current financial crisis in Iraq has pushed Iraqi militias to increase kidnappings in order to obtain the necessary funds for their activities through ransom money, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported on Wednesday.
Militias do not differentiate between Sunni and Shiites – kidnapping members of both sects – but it has been reported that they do not torture or kill hostages, but rather use them only as a means to procure funds. This proves that the main incentive for such acts in the financial crisis.
An Iraqi citizen called Mohamed told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that his father was kidnapped in the middle of Baghdad Market. He said his father is a businessman and that he owns several clothes shops in several Iraqi cities.
“The kidnapper wore official military clothes and used a civilian car,” Mohamed said. “They led my father to an unknown place. Five hours later, my father called us through his mobile and affirmed he was not tortured, but the kidnappers needed $200,000. [They later] reduced [this] to $120,000.”
A parliamentarian from the Iraqi Forces Alliance told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the militias used to receive funding from the state during the reign of Nouri al-Maliki, but are currently suffering a financial crisis that is leading them to kidnap people and blackmail them for money.
Describing the situation as “dangerous”, he called for the immediate formation of a task group to follow up on the rise of kidnappings, which has caused a state of insecurity in the country.
An unnamed member of the security committee in Baghdad accused the security services of forming gangs to kidnap and blackmail people using their official uniforms.
“Many of the security officers are connected to militias and form large gangs using the name of the state and no one can deter them,” he told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.
To solve the problem, he called for a doubling of security checkpoints as well as the “purification” of the security services from everyone proved to have connections with the militias.