Hostages in Iraq
The issue of hostages in Iraq primarily emerged following the 2003 US invasion, which led to a chaotic environment marked by violence and instability. Various groups, including terrorists and insurgents, targeted not only military personnel but also foreign civilians, such as journalists, humanitarian aid workers, and contractors. These abducted individuals were often held for political leverage or ransom, with motivations ranging from ideological goals to financial gain.
High-profile cases, such as the kidnapping and execution of American Nicholas Berg and British Kenneth Bigley, illustrated the brutality common among hostage-takers, garnering significant media attention and influencing political decisions in their home countries. Despite some successful rescues, many hostages faced dire fates, while negotiations for ransom occasionally took place, leading to mixed responses from governments.
The phenomenon of hostage-taking was exacerbated by the lawlessness in certain regions, spurring a cycle where kidnappers exploited the situation for profit. Although the withdrawal of US forces in 2011 marked an end to the official military conflict, the threat of kidnapping and violence for hostages remains a concern, reflecting ongoing instability in the region.
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Hostages in Iraq
Americans and other individuals who were taken captive by terrorists or insurgents during the Iraq War
In the years following the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, a number of Americans, other foreigners, and Iraqis were taken hostage by terrorists or other groups seeking to end the foreign military presence. Some were released, while others were killed by their captors. This trend added an element of danger particularly for foreign civilians such as journalists and aid workers.
Following the United States–led invasion of Iraq in 2003, troops on the ground were faced with the daunting challenge of engaging forces loyal to deposed leader Saddam Hussein as well as foreign terrorists. During the campaign, a large number of foreign civilians were also in Iraq, some providing logistical support to US forces and others providing consultative services to the new government or humanitarian aid to the people of Iraq. Although they were not directly involved in the military conflict, these civilians faced the risk of being kidnapped by terrorist groups and other insurgents. Over the course of the nearly nine-year conflict, a number of Americans, citizens of allied nations, and Iraqis were abducted and held as hostages by such groups. Some of the individuals who were taken hostage were eventually released, while others were killed. There was no single motivation for hostage taking; rather, there were many, ranging from the political or ideological to the financial.
Terrorism
Hostage taking was a common tool for Iraqi and foreign terrorists alike during the conflict. Such groups, particularly those loyal to Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, were motivated by the desire to frighten and intimidate the Western forces in Iraq. When Zarqawi and his associates abducted American Nicholas Berg in 2004, the hostage takers sought no ransom; instead, they videotaped a statement and beheaded Berg on camera, later broadcasting the video on the Internet. In another incident that year, Zarqawi’s group captured British citizen Kenneth Bigley. Despite efforts from countries such as Great Britain, Ireland, and even Libya, Bigley was held in captivity for several weeks and eventually killed. In both cases, the international media contributed to the terrorists’ visibility by reporting on and broadcasting their messages.
The brutality of these and similar incidents was in many cases effective. When three Japanese citizens were captured by a terrorist group demanding that Japan withdraw its 550 troops from Iraq, the Japanese government refused. However, this event as well as the unpopularity of the Iraq War in Japan led the Japanese government to withdraw its troops from Iraq only two years later. A Turkish trucking association similarly pulled its operations out of Iraq when its workers were taken hostage.
Ransom
After Hussein’s regime was removed and a new government and infrastructure began to be established, a cottage industry of kidnapping arose in areas of Iraq that lacked security. Kidnappers took advantage of the near-lawlessness in such areas to take foreign contractors, journalists, and aid workers hostage and hold them for ransom. According to some accounts, Westerners were the most popular targets; kidnappers generally sought ransoms in the thousands of dollars for Iraqi hostages but demanded hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars for Western hostages.
The US government and many of its allies made it clear that they would not pay any ransom or negotiate with terrorists, but some governments were not as rigid. Italian authorities were reported to have raised $1 million to secure the release of Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, two Italian aid workers who were abducted from their office in Baghdad in broad daylight in 2004. A Jordanian businessman was also held hostage but was released after his family paid his ransom.
The fates of hostages such as Berg and Bigley, whose executions were shared by the terrorists via the Internet, encouraged many individuals and governments to negotiate with hostage takers and pay the necessary ransoms. Since there was no way to know if the kidnappers were of the same mindset as the terrorists who killed Berg and others, some felt it was necessary to err on the side of caution.
Impact
Although several major terrorist leaders operating in Iraq, including Zarqawi, were killed by the end of the 2000s, the region remained a hazardous one for civilians. Some groups continued to take hostages, seeking money or the withdrawal of US and other forces from the country. In late 2011, the US government withdrew its last military forces from Iraq, officially ending the war, although fighting between insurgents and Iraqi forces has continued.
Bibliography
Cronin, Richard P. Japan’s Self-Defense Forces in Iraq: Motivations, Constraints, and Implications for US-Japan Alliance Cooperation. Washington: Congressional Information Service, 2004. Print.
Hallums, Roy. Buried Alive: The True Story of Kidnapping, Captivity, and a Dramatic Rescue. Nashville: Nelson, 2010. Print.
Kember, Norman. Hostage in Iraq. Toronto: Lorimer, 2007. Print.
Tinnes, Judith. “Counting Lives in a Theater of Terror—An Analysis of Media-Oriented Hostage Takings in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.” Perspectives on Terrorism 4.5 (2010). Web. 4 Nov. 2012.
Ware, Michael, Timothy J. Burger, and Mark Thompson. “The Enemy with Many Faces.” Time, 19 Sept. 2004: 42–45. Print.