kidnapped 11-year-old Iraqi kurdish boy, is rescued

Iraqi Kurdish-led forces, that shows a mission in which a kidnapped 11-year-old Iraqi boy is rescued after being held for ransom.

Acting on a tip from a local Iraqi, the forces planned a surprise raid last week on a home in Kirkuk where an 11-year-old boy, the son of a Kurdish mechanic, was being held for a $100,000 ransom by Criminal/Al Qaeda.

The kidnappers had held the boy, Ammar, for four days.

Kidnapping and extortion are how Al Qaeda in Iraq finances its attacks. It is big business. But this time there was a happy ending.

"As he came out from under that curtain you could tell he looked terrified," Smith told FOX News in an interview, speaking about the boy. "He gave his name and they said, 'Youre the one we are looking for,' and you could tell he was much relieved at that point."

The raid began before dawn.

"They approached on foot," Smith said from Baghdad. "They knew precisely what door they needed to go to. They came down a small alleyway. The door was locked, they yelled inside for it to be unlocked, it was not unlocked so they broke the door down."

The security forces entered a small room.

"The Criminal member who had custody of this young boy was also in shock by the entrance and the quick operations by the Iraq security forces," Smith said.

One of the kidnappers was caught inside the room where the boy was hiding. All of the shooting and shouting left the boy terrified, according to those who participated in the raid.

"They got him into the car," Smith recalled. "They handed him a cell phone so he could call his mother, and he was very composed. He just said, 'Hello. This is Ammar.'

"He said, 'I am here. I am safe.'"

An officer on the other end of the line could hear the family screaming and shouting. Soon after, the boy was delivered back to cheering neighbors and family members.

This story had a happy ending, but most kidnappings in Iraq do not. Ammar was from a simple family, and his father never could have paid the $100,000 ransom.

In an interview after his son was returned to the family, Ammar's father said, "The kidnappers told us that if we fail to pay the ransom, they will behead my son and put his head in the garbage can in front of my house. We told them that we don't have money."

The raid netted five kidnappers and led the coalition forces to another boy being held in a hideout nearby. He was freed on Sunday.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Iraq
• Iraqi
• Kurdish-led
• forces
• 11-year-old
• Kirkuk
• Kurdistan
• Kurds
• USA
• War
• Al
• Qaida
• Criminal

[Blumenau089]

VERY NICE KURDISH ARMY

[sorokurd]

her bejit kurd o kurdistan long live the freedom off the kurds and the people that respect them as human being and nation off its own and a country is around the corner..............

[ritaleban]

Good job