Gunmen cut Baghdad-Anbar road and seize travellers

Unidentified gunmen wearing black uniforms cut the international road linking the Iraqi capital Baghdad with Anbar province in western Iraq on Friday. Iraqi security sources said that the gunmen have seized dozens of travelers coming from western areas, while tribal leaders expressed their fear of the repetition of kidnappings that have carried out by Iraqi militias in Anbar. Moreover, more than 2,900 people were liberated from ISIS, including a Yezidi girl.

A source in the Iraqi Interior Ministry said that the gunmen said they affiliate with the 16 drivers who had been kidnapped in Anbar. The sources added that the gunmen took control of a number of checkpoints, and seized dozens of travelers from the western regions, stressing that passengers are still being held in in Abu Ghraib area, and that Iraqi forces are trying to intervene for their release.

The source pointed out that the militants have confirmed that they will not leave their places, and will not open the road, unless the government returns their abducted relatives, pointing to that dozens of elements of the "Badr forces" and the "Forces of the Righteous" are employed in the vicinity of the area to protect the militants.

In addition a member of the Council of elders of Fallujah, Mohamed al-Jumaili said, on Friday, that armed men were seen on the road to Baghdad, adding that the gunmen seized dozens of cars and travellers, they did not allow them to return or complete their way toward the capital Baghdad.

He revealed that the kidnaped drivers were in Rahhaliyah area, south of Al-Anbar, indicating that this region which witnessed the kidnapping fall within the control of the "Popular Mobilization", specifically "Hezbollah in Iraq" forces.

Head of Rahhaliyah announced last week that the Islamic State (ISIS) kidnapped 16 civilians from the town. Rahhaliyah is located on the border between the provinces of Anbar and Karbala (100 km south of Baghdad), and is under the control of the Popular Mobilization.