On June 22, a video clip circulated on Arab Twitter accounts claiming to show an Iranian who was captured in Fallujah, Iraq. The Iranian is shown in front of three armed militants. Their affiliation is not clear from the video. [Update: the video is from 2005]
Islamic State-affiliated media outlets have not propagated the video as of yet.
The purported Iranian national told the camera in Farsi, “I am Mohammad Saber Bayat, from the city of Hamedan, from Boo Ali neighborhood. I have not married, and my family is in Iran.”
Bayat’s purpose in Fallujah is unclear, and the video did not give any indication as to why he is in Fallujah. Iranian-backed Shia militias have been fighting on the outskirts of the city, and elements of the Iraqi military have entered the city and recently taken control of the government center.
Senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders including Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Qods Force, and Mohammad Pakpour, commander of the Ground Forces, have been spotted at the Fallujah front. Iranian fighters have also embedded with Iraqi militias in the recent operations.
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3 Comments
Couldn’t happen to a nicer person, I’m sure… I feel so sorry for him.
I wouldn’t be sarcastic. This video is very old. It’s from 2005. I saw it on Infovlad clearinghouse in 2008. The video is dated June 2005, long before the Islamic State was created. I have no idea who the Iranian’s captors were or what happened to the hostage but the end of the video has Arabic scripture which translates to something like “we demand to know what a Rafid is doing in Iraq?” The Iranian could have just been some truck driver or contractor kidnapped off the street. That happened a lot to foreigners during the Iraq war.
@Tobias Spears.: Concur. The same group did exist in 2005 — it was just called AQI back then. And one should feel sorry for anybody captured by these lunatics. How can you tell that the video is dated June 2005?