BAGHDAD (AP) – Gunmen kidnapped an Iraqi journalist after breaking into her Baghdad home, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday, a reminder of the dangers reporters face in a war-torn country where authorities have struggled to maintain security.
The Interior Ministry said Afrah Sawqi al-Qaisi was abducted from her house in the southwestern Saydiyah neighborhood on Monday night. It called on residents to come forward with any information that might help the investigation. The ministry statement did not give details of the kidnapping.
Citing her family’s account, the head of the Baghdad-based Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, Ziyad al-Ajeeli, said eight gunmen arrived in at least two pickup trucks, claimed to be members of the security forces, and asked to search the house.
Once inside, they handcuffed al-Qaisi’s 16-year-old son, kept him in the kitchen and took gold, money, phones, laptops and a car, al-Ajeeli said. They also badly beat her brother-in-law, who lives next door, he added.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered the security forces to investigate the kidnapping and to “exert the utmost effort” to save al-Qaisi.