BAGHDAD: Iraq’s security forces said on Monday they had made arrests related to the kidnapping and holding hostage of six of their members by Daesh militants.
The militants had kidnapped six men and on Saturday threatened to kill them in three days unless the government released Sunni Muslim female prisoners.
In a video released by the group, the six men identify themselves as members of the police or the Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella grouping of mostly Shiite Iran-backed militias that fought with government forces against Islamic State and nominally report to Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi.
They were kidnapped on the highway connecting Baghdad to Iraq’s north, a road that has seen an uptick in attacks by Daesh in recent weeks.
Abadi met security and intelligence leaders on Sunday and ordered the formation of a special force to secure roads and protect travelers, the security forces said in a statement.
“This force was able to arrest elements from the terrorism and crime gangs that are related to the recent kidnapping incident on the road to Kirkuk province recently,” it said.
Abadi declared final victory over the extremist militants in December but the group still operates from pockets along the border with Syria and has continued to carry out ambushes, assassinations and bombings across Iraq.
Iraq makes arrests in kidnapping of security men by Daesh
Iraq makes arrests in kidnapping of security men by Daesh
Amnesty says Algeria unlawfully returned Tunisia asylum seeker
- Amnesty International said Makhlouf was handed over to Tunisian police on January 18 without prior notice to him or his lawyers, in a move the group called “unlawful refoulement”
TUNIS: Global rights group Amnesty accused Algerian authorities on Monday of breaching international law by forcibly returning a political dissident to Tunisia, even though he was a registered asylum seeker.
Seifeddine Makhlouf, a former parliamentarian and critic of Tunisian President Kais Saied, was reportedly sentenced to prison for “plotting against state security” before his return to the North African country.
Makhlouf, who is the leader of the Al Karama party, sought asylum in Algeria in July 2024 after facing detention in Tunisia, and registered as an asylum seeker with the UN refugee agency UNHCR.
Amnesty International said Makhlouf was handed over to Tunisian police on January 18 without prior notice to him or his lawyers, in a move the group called “unlawful refoulement.”
“Makhlouf’s forced return is a violation of the principle of non-refoulement,” Amnesty’s MENA deputy chief Sara Hashash said in a statement published by the group.
“By handing him over to Tunisian authorities without allowing him any opportunity to contest the decision or assessing the risks he faces in Tunisia... Algeria has breached its obligations under international human rights law, including the Refugee Convention,” she added.
Saied froze parliament in July 2021 and seized far-reaching executive powers in what critics have called a “coup.”
Since then, local and international NGOs have denounced a regression of rights and freedoms in Tunisia.
Amnesty said Makhlouf was later imprisoned in Algeria for irregular entry and placed in administrative detention, during which he was denied access to the UN refugee agency.
The rights group said Makhlouf was arrested upon his arrival in Tunisia to serve sentences handed down in his absence.
Reports said a Tunisian court sentenced Makhlouf on January 13 to five years in prison for “plotting against state security.”
The Amnesty statement called for “verdicts rendered in absentia to be quashed and for a new and fair trial to be held before an independent and impartial court.”
Hashash warned that Makhlouf’s case reflects wider regional repression, calling his extradition “particularly alarming given the escalating crackdown on dissent in Tunisia, where the judiciary has been increasingly weaponized to silence political opposition.”
She said that Algeria’s actions “set a dangerous precedent,” adding that “bilateral cooperation now takes precedence over the most fundamental principles of international human rights and refugee law.”
