Alec MacLachlan
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Alec MacLachlan
Members of the Iraqi insurgency began taking foreign hostages in Iraq beginning in April 2004. Since then, in a dramatic instance of Islamist kidnapping they have taken captive more than 200 foreigners and thousands of Iraqis; among them, dozens of hostages were killed and others rescued or freed. In 2004, executions of captives were often filmed, and many were beheaded. However, the number of the recorded killings decreased significantly. Many hostages remain missing with no clue as to their whereabouts. The United States Department of State Hostage Working Group was organized by the U.S. Embassy, Baghdad, in the summer of 2004 to monitor foreign hostages in Iraq. The motives for these kidnappings include: * influencing foreign governments with troops in Iraq to withdraw * influencing foreign companies with workers in Iraq to leave the country * demanding ransom money * creating terror in Iraq * discouraging travel to Iraq * prisoner exchange The following is a list of known ...
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Iraqi Insurgency (2003–2011)
The Iraqi insurgency lasted from 2003 until 2011, beginning shortly after the 2003 2003 invasion of Iraq, American invasion deposed longtime leader Saddam Hussein, and lasting until the end of the Iraq War and U.S. withdrawal in 2011. It was followed by a Iraqi insurgency (2011–2013), renewed insurgency. The initial outbreak of violence (the 2003–2006 phase of the Iraqi insurgency, 2003–2006 phase) was triggered by the fall and preceded the establishment of the new Federal government of Iraq, Iraqi government by the Multi-National Force – Iraq (MNF–I), which was led by the United States. From around 2004 to May 2007, Iraqi insurgents largely focused their attacks on MNF-I troops, but later shifted to targeting the post-invasion Iraqi security forces as well. The insurgents were composed of a Private militias in Iraq, diverse mix of private militias, Saddamism, pro-Saddam Ba'athism, Ba'athists, local Iraqis opposed to the MNF–I and/or the post-Saddam Iraqi government ...
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Enzo Baldoni
Enzo G. Baldoni (October 8, 1948 – August 26, 2004) was an Italian journalist working freelance and for the Italian news magazine ''Diario'' before being kidnapped and killed in captivity as captured on video by his captors. Baldoni was one of two Italians kidnapped in Iraq. Personal life Baldoni was born in Città di Castello, Umbria. He had arrived in Baghdad a few weeks before his kidnapping and death, and also served there as a Red Cross volunteer. He was married with two children. Career Baldoni had started his career in diverse jobs including working as a mason (in Belgium), a gymnastics professor, photographer, interpreter and laboratory technician. He then moved into advertising, working for the advertising agency ''Le balene colpiscono ancora'' ("The whales strike again"). Finally, he became a freelance journalist. He was also a translator, and was responsible for the Italian translation of ''Doonesbury'' comic strips. Kidnapping and death He was kidnapped near Naja ...
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Basra
Basra () is a port city in Iraq, southern Iraq. It is the capital of the eponymous Basra Governorate, as well as the List of largest cities of Iraq, third largest city in Iraq overall, behind Baghdad and Mosul. Located near the Iran–Iraq border at the north-easternmost extent of the Arabian Peninsula, the city is situated along the banks of the Shatt al-Arab that empties into the Persian Gulf. It is consistently one of the hottest cities in Iraq, with summer temperatures regularly exceeding . Built in 636 as a military camp, Basra played an important role as a regional hub of knowledge, trade and commerce during the Islamic Golden Age and is home to the first mosque built outside the Arabian Peninsula. It was a center of the History of slavery, slave trade in Mesopotamia, until the Zanj Rebellion, Zanj rebellion in Battle of Basra (871), 871. Historically, Basra is one of the ports from which the fictional Sinbad the Sailor embarked on his journeys. It has experienced numerou ...
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The Sunday Telegraph
''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, first published on 5 February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...'', also published by the Telegraph Media Group. ''The Sunday Telegraph'' was originally a separate operation with a different editorial staff, but since 2013 the ''Telegraph'' has been a seven-day operation. However, ''The Sunday Telegraph'' still has its own editor, different from that of ''The Daily Telegraph''. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the ''Sunday Telegraph'' had an average circulation of 214,711 copies per week in the first half of 2021. See also * References External links * ...
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James Brandon (journalist)
The Mahdi Army () was an Iraqi Shia militia created by Muqtada al-Sadr in June 2003 and disbanded in 2008. The Mahdi Army rose to international prominence on April 4, 2004, when it spearheaded the first major armed confrontation against the US forces in Iraq from the Shia community. This concerned an uprising that followed the ban of al-Sadr's newspaper and his subsequent attempted arrest, lasting until a truce on June 6. The truce was followed by moves to disband the group and transform al-Sadr's movement into a political party to take part in the 2005 elections; Muqtada al-Sadr ordered fighters of the Mahdi Army to cease fire unless attacked first. The truce broke down in August 2004 after provocative actions by the Mahdi Army, with new hostilities erupting. The group was disbanded in 2008, following a crackdown by Iraqi security forces. At its height, the Mahdi Army's popularity was strong enough to influence local government, the police, and cooperation with Sunni Iraqis ...
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Nasiriyah
Nasiriyah ( , ; , BGN: , ), also spelled Nassiriya or Nasiriya, is a city in Iraq, the capital of the Dhi Qar Governorate. It lies on the lower Euphrates, about south-southeast of Baghdad, near the ruins of the ancient city of Ur. Its population in 2018 was about 558,000, making it the ninth-largest city in Iraq. It had a diverse population of Muslims, Mandaeans and Jews in the early 20th century;Field Museum of Natural History, 1940, p. 258. today its inhabitants are predominantly Shia Muslims. Nasiriyah was founded by the Muntafiq tribe in the late 19th century during the Ottoman era. It has since become a major hub for transportation. Nasiriyah is the center of a date-growing area. The city's cottage industries include boat-building, carpentry and silver working. The city museum has a large collection of Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Abbasid artifacts. The ruins of the ancient cities of Ur and Larsa are nearby and the Euphrates merges with the Tigris for the ...
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Kenneth Bigley
Kenneth is a given name of Gaelic origin. The name is an Anglicised form of two entirely different Gaelic personal names: ''Cainnech'' and '' Cináed''. The modern Gaelic form of ''Cainnech'' is ''Coinneach''; the name was derived from a byname meaning "handsome", "comely". Etymology The second part of the name ''Cinaed'' is derived either from the Celtic ''*aidhu'', meaning "fire", or else Brittonic ''jʉ:ð'' meaning "lord". People Fictional characters * Kenneth Widmerpool, character in Anthony Powell's novel sequence ''A Dance to the Music of Time'' * Kenneth Parcell from 30 Rock Places In the United States: * Kenneth, Minnesota * Kenneth City, Florida In Scotland: * Inch Kenneth Inch Kenneth () is a small grassy island off the west coast of the Isle of Mull, in Scotland. It is at the entrance of Loch na Keal, to the south of Ulva. It is part of the Loch na Keal National Scenic Area, one of 40 in Scotland. It is within ..., an island off the west coast of the ...
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Kim Sun-il
Kim Sun-il (; 13 September 1970 – ) was a South Korean interpreter and Christian missionary who was kidnapped and murdered by decapitation in Iraq. Early life and education Kim was born into a poor family and his biological mother died when he was nine years old. He was fluent in Arabic, holding a graduate degree in the language from Seoul's Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in February 2003. He also had degrees in English and theology, and had hoped to become a missionary in the Middle East. Kidnapping Arrival Kim arrived in Iraq on 15 June 2003, working for Gana General Trading Company, a South Korean company under contract to the American military. On 30 May 2004, he was kidnapped in Fallujah — about west of Baghdad — by the Islamist group Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad and held as a hostage. The group, which was allegedly led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, killed him on or about 22 June when South Korea refused to meet their demands of cancelling its plans o ...
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Mohammad Munaf
Mohammed Munaf (, full name Mohammad Munaf Mohammad al-Amin, born November 29, 1952) is an Iraqi–American terrorist convicted in 2008 for his role in the March 2005 kidnapping of three Romanian journalists in Iraq. He was convicted of terrorism charges in Romania and served 7 out of the 10 years of his sentence and was freed on July 6, 2022. In addition to his conviction in Romania, he was sentenced to death by an Iraqi court in October 2006 for his involvement in the kidnapping of the Romanian journalists in 2005, but his conviction was vacated on technical grounds by the Iraqi Court of Cassation on February 29, 2008, and remanded to the lower court for retrial. His habeas corpus petition to prevent his transfer to the Iraqi government was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court,
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Osservatorio Balcani E Caucaso
Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa (OBC Transeuropa or OBCT) is a think tank and online newspaper based in Trento, Italy, and specialised on South East Europe. It reports on social, cultural and political developments across 6 EU member states, 7 candidate and potential candidate countries, and 5 countries of the Eastern Partnership (as well as ''de facto'' states) through a network of 50 correspondents from abroad, including journalists, researchers, and activists, publishing news, analysis and multimedia on a daily basis. Its archives hosts more than 10,000 items. It also produces and circulates research papers, scientific books and educational toolkits, and makes use of crowd-sourcing, social media and online debates as a bottom-up strategy. All its contents are available on Creative Commons licenses.About Us
, Osservatorio B ...
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Basra International Airport
Basra International Airport () is international airport in Iraq, serving the southern city of Basra. As of 2022, Basra International Airport is the fourth-busiest airport by total passenger traffic and aircraft operations in the country, behind the airports in Baghdad, Najaf and Erbil. History Old airport The old airport was situated about 6 miles to the east from the current one, on the right bank of Shatt Al-Arab (so it can accommodate the seaplanes). In 1937-1938 an airport terminal for Imperial Airways was built by British architects James Mollison Wilson and Harold Mason with an unusual appearance resembling an imperial palace. Construction The airport was built in the 1980s and then developed in the 1980s by the Iraqi Government department State Organisation for Roads and Bridges (SORB) as a gateway to the only port in Iraq. It is claimed that the airport was built only as a facility for VIPs and was only used rarely. Renovation and military use Renovation of the ai ...
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Akihiko Saito
was a Japanese security specialist adviser who was taken hostage by the Jaish Ansar al-Sunna in Iraq in 2005. Saito's abduction and subsequent death came as a shock to the Japanese public who were surprised to find out that a former member of the Japanese Self-Defence Force was operating as a private security officer in Iraq. Early life Prior to entering the French Foreign Legion, Akihiko served in the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) in the 1st Airborne Brigade in 1979 before he left in 1981. Akihiko was subsequently recruited into the ranks of the French Foreign Legion in June 1983, serving for 20 years. When he left the Legion, his rank was Chief Adjutant (French: ''Adjudant-Chef'').Saito just one of many Japanese in French Foreign Legion: ex-legionnaire.
Retri ...
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