Defenders of Baghdad Turn to Crime

“Over the last few days the security forces have captured several of the gangs associated with these kidnapping crimes,” the spokesman for the Baghdad Operations Command, Saad Maan, told NIQASH. “These gangs have been using the names of some of the militias and they’ve forged the identification cards and uniforms in order to carry out their crimes.”

Within just one gang, Maan relates, the nine members all drove SUVs and were wearing military uniforms when they went out to kidnap people.

A lot of Baghdadis don’t believe this official line though. They know that the Shiite Muslim militias have strong links to Iraq’s ruling political parties and that’s why they won’t go to the authorities with any complaints.

Arkan Majid lives in Baghdad’s Bayaa nieghbourhood and works in an auto sales showroom. Last week he got a call from an unknown number: The caller told him that his youngest child had been kidnapped and asked for a large ransom.

Majid says he paid the ransom and his child was returned. However because the kidnappers had called him through a local mobile phone company he was able to get an idea of who had committed the crime. “Rather than using Internet calling, they called me through a number I didn’t know - I had the number,” he told NIQASH. Majid also has a friend who works for that mobile phone service and he got him to identify the phone number’s owner. They found out that the number belonged to the son of a neighbour, a young man who had volunteered for a militia to fight against the IS group.