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Search Parties Sent Out to Look for Three US Citizens Missing in Baghdad

US officials say they're working with Iraqi security forces to track down "several" Americans that have gone missing in Iraq.
Checkpoint en Bagdad, febrero de 2015. (Imagen por Mohammed Jalil/EPA)

Helicopter search parties were sent out and checkpoints set up in southeast Baghdad on Monday in an attempt to find three US citizens who have gone missing.

Local media reported that three US contractors or trainers had been kidnapped with their translator in the Dora neighborhood on Friday.

But a senior police officer said authorities were still not certain what had caused their disappearance, and US officials have only acknowledged that several citizens are unaccounted for.

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Two Iraqi army helicopters were seen hovering over the Dora neighbourhood while police SUVs patrolled the streets, residents said.

An Iraqi official told Sky News the group were kidnapped from their translator's home in Dora and then taken to Sadr city, where all communication was cut off.

State Department spokesman John Kirby told the Associated Press that "due to privacy considerations," he couldn't disclose any names or information about the missing people. "The safety and security of Americans abroad is our highest priority," Kirby said.

US Embassy spokesman Scott Bolz said told the AP that the US is "working in full cooperation with Iraqi authorities to locate the missing Americans."

The AP also reported the group may have gone missing on the way to the Baghdad International Airport. An unnamed Iraqi police colonel told French news agency AFP that an Iraqi translator was kidnapped alongside the Americans by militiamen wearing military uniforms, and that police were working to track them down.

Baghdad has been plagued by kidnappings since the US invasion in 2003, and abductions are sometimes committed by criminal gangs that pose as security force members or militiamen.

Related: Kidnapped Turkish Workers Shown in Iraqi 'Death Squad' Video Pledging Their Release

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