ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s foreign ministry on Saturday announced the release of an Iraqi citizen in Syria, three weeks after being kidnapped in the central Homs province. Abu Hassan Hamid Musaid, an Iraqi from the southern Basra province was kidnapped about three weeks ago in the Bayadha area of Homs countryside by unknown militants. He travelled to Syria to get married to a Syrian woman. “Thanks to the relentless efforts of the Iraqi embassies in Damascus and Beirut, in cooperation with the Iraqi National Intelligence Service and direct communication with security leaders in the Syrian government and Lebanese security authorities … the citizen was freed,” read a statement from the Iraqi foreign ministry. The kidnappers, according to the statement, asked for a ransom of $500,000 “but the Iraqi embassy and the National Intelligence Service managed to secure his release without entering any negotiations with the kidnappers.” Homs province, where Musaid was kidnapped, is an area where Islamic State (ISIS) militants conduct most of their attacks and activities. However, the foreign ministry did not disclose which group had kidnapped the Iraqi citizen. Syrians rose up against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, leading to a full-scale civil war that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and has made the country a ground for multiple armed groups. According to UN estimates, more than 130,000 persons are missing as a result of the conflict in Syria.
