Iraq: Gunmen snatch female journalist from her Baghdad home

Iraq’s Interior Ministry says unidentified gunmen have broken into the house of a female journalist and activist in Baghdad and kidnapped her.

Tuesday’s statement didn’t give details on the circumstances surrounding the abduction of Afrah Shawqi al-Qaisi from her house late last night in Baghdad’ southwestern Saydiyah neighborhood.

Al-Qaisi, a veteran journalist and an employee of the Iraqi Culture Ministry, is considered one of the critics of the country’s endemic corruption.

Iraq’s PM Haider al-Abadi ordered the security forces to investigate the kidnapping and to “exert the utmost effort” to save her. Journalists, who have been frequently targeted by militant groups since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.