 A freelance journalist was abducted in Iraq on Saturday and her Iraqi translator was killed, but apparently not before he was able to tell "soldiers" -- U.S. or Iraqi, not sure -- about the kidnapping... So far, the abduction of Jill Carroll has received little play in the States. (The story hits the WaPo and other U.S. papers Tuesday). Carroll was on assignment for the Christian Science Monitor, which apparently wanted the story held (she was grabbed on Saturday. The AFP version of the story ran in international papers and websites on Saturday.) The Monitor has issued this statement for Tuesday:
Jill Carroll, a freelance writer currently on assignment for The Christian Science Monitor, was abducted in western Baghdad on Saturday morning, local time. Her Iraqi interpreter was fatally wounded in the kidnapping. Her Iraqi driver escaped unharmed. At this point, no one has claimed responsibility.
Jill, 28, is an established journalist who has been reporting from the Middle East for Jordanian, Italian, and other news organizations over the past three years. In recent months, the Monitor has tapped into her professionalism, energy, and fair reporting on the Iraqi scene. It was her drive to gather direct and accurate views from political leaders that took her into western Baghdad's Adil neighborhood on Saturday morning.
The Monitor joins Jill's colleagues - Iraqi and foreign - in the Baghdad press in calling for her immediate and safe release.
"Jill's ability to help others understand the issues facing all groups in Iraq has been invaluable. We are urgently seeking information about Ms. Carroll and are pursuing every avenue to secure her release," says Monitor Editor Richard Bergenheim. ...along with its own verson of the story:
"I saw a group of people coming as if they had come from the sky," recalled Ms. Carroll's driver, who survived the attack. "One guy attracted my attention. He jumped in front of me screaming, 'Stop! Stop! Stop!' with his left hand up and a pistol in his right hand."
One of the kidnappers pulled the driver from the car, jumped in, and drove away with several others huddled around Carroll and her interpreter, said the driver, who asked not to be identified. "They didn't give me any time to even put the car in neutral," he recounted.
The body of the interpreter, Allan Enwiyah, 32, was later found in the same neighborhood. He had been shot twice in the head, law enforcement officials said. There has been no word yet on Carroll's whereabouts.
The kidnapping occurred within 300 yards of the office of Adnan al-Dulaimi, a prominent Sunni politician, whom Carroll had been intending to interview at 10 a.m. Saturday local time, the driver said.
Mr. Dulaimi, however, turned out not to be at his office, and after 25 minutes, Carroll and her interpreter left. Their car was stopped as she drove away. "It was very obvious this was by design," said the driver. "The whole operation took no more than a quarter of a minute. It was very highly organized. It was a setup, a perfect ambush." The kidnapping marked the end of a very bloody week in Iraq, including the deaths of a dozen American servicemen and civilian contractors. It also comes just after a French hostage was freed and amid the revelation that a German woman recently freed from captivity in Iraq may have been a government spy.
What a week.
Previous: Tags: News, Iraq, Middle East, War, Kidnapping, Foreign Policy, Spies, Spying |
