The Iranian government made its clearest demand to South Korea for a ransom payment to release a captive tanker and crew on Sunday, dismissing South Korea’s diplomatic efforts to secure their release as “politicizing” the issue and telling Seoul to show some “political will” by unfreezing $7 billion of Iranian funds held by South Korean banks.
A bank employee who was taken hostage along with five others has revealed that the man who took them prisoner showed signs of Islamic radicalism, preaching and reciting Qur’an verses.
The Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP) released a video on Tuesday purportedly showing the execution of eleven hostages, ten Christians plus one Muslim. The group said the murders were in retaliation for the deaths of ISIS leaders Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Monday – the 40th anniversary of the Iran hostage crisis – that the reward for information leading to the recovery of missing American Robert Levinson has been increased to $20 million. Levinson disappeared in Iran in 2007 at the age of 58.
U.S. officials told Fox News Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim that the Islamic State (ISIS) is holding around 700 people hostage in Syria, including several European and U.S. Nationals, is “fake news.”
Democratic Congresswoman Julia Brownley (D-CA) says President Donald Trump is using illegal aliens at the United States-Mexico border as “hostages” to push an “extreme” immigration agenda.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry responded Thursday to President Donald Trump’s characterization on Twitter of the arrest of American Pastor Andrew Brunson as a “total disgrace,” insisting that his prolonged detention is a “legal process” necessary for the country’s national security.
“Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting,” Trump wrote in the letter.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Monday that Greece categorically rejects “unacceptable preconditions” from Turkey for the return of two Greek soldiers arrested on the Turkish side of the border in March.
It fell to Fox News to remind Americans that while “some observers continue to fawn over Kim Jong-un’s sister and North Korea’s ‘smile diplomacy,’” the brutal dictatorship is still holding three Americans prisoner
President Donald Trump had a successful first year, but there were moments when his supporters felt particularly vindicated about their decision to vote for him. Those moments are “MAGA moments,” when it was clear that Trump was keeping his promise to Make America Great Again.
America’s Caitlan Coleman, her Canadian husband, and her children were released by the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network this week, according to a Fox News report.
Police in Charleston, South Carolina, have surrounded Virginia’s restaurant after reports that a man walked out of the kitchen with a revolver and is holding hostages. According to the Post and Courier, one person has been shot and an unknown number
The battle for the southern Philippine city of Marawi continues, and may even be widening, but military officials had one piece of good news to offer on Monday: According to other hostages, the Catholic priest kidnapped by Islamic State militants is still alive.
The Taliban has published a video purportedly featuring an American and an Australian prisoner kidnapped last August urging U.S. President Donald Trump to negotiate a hostage exchange to secure their release.
The mother of an American man wrongfully imprisoned in Venezuela says she is hopeful the Trump administration may soon secure the release of her son after the return of 22-year-old student Otto Warmbier to the United States this week from North Korea.
On Sunday, North Korea’s state-controlled media announced the detention of another American for “hostile acts” against the state.
The Vietnamese village of My Duc was the scene of a major hostage crisis that ended without bloodshed on Saturday, with the release of 38 police and public officials held hostage for a week by villagers angry about the seizure of their land.
North Korea responded to Malaysia’s expulsion of its ambassador and tighter restrictions on North Korean travel by announcing a travel ban of its own. In classic North Korean style, their travel ban prevents Malaysians from leaving Pyongyang, effectively taking all of them hostage.
Islamic State fighters have abducted 295 former Iraqi Security Forces members near Mosul and forced 1,500 families to retreat with them from the town of Hammam al Alil toward Mosul airport, U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said on Tuesday.
The Islamic State group is forcibly gathering people in and around Mosul for possible use as human shields against advancing Iraqi forces, residents said Wednesday, confirming UN fears.
Islamic State forces in Iraq have abducted tens of thousands of men, women and children from areas around Mosul and are using them as “human shields” in the city as Iraqi government troops advance, the U.N. human rights office said on Friday.
Forces loyal to Libya’s unity government on Saturday freed 13 foreigners held by the Islamic State group in its former coastal bastion of Sirte, the forces said.
Iran’s state-controlled media are talking up the possibility of extorting “many billions of dollars” in further ransom payments from the United States, and they have been stocking up on American hostages to get the money.
Brett McGurk, President Obama’s special envoy on the Iran deal, admitted at a State Department press briefing on Friday that major concessions to Iran, characterized by critics as ransom for U.S. hostages, were signed on the same day, evidently in the same room.
The mother of an American citizen arrested for “espionage” in Venezuela says her son’s health is deteriorating rapidly, he has not received due process, and there is evidence to believe the socialist government framed him to take an American prisoner.
It would have been unthinkable, 15 years ago, for any American politician to back sending $1.7 billion to Iran’s military. Yet Clinton does. That alone disqualifies her as commander-in-chief.
A new video purports to show an American woman and her Canadian husband, who were taken hostage by the Afghan Taliban in 2012, pleading for help from their respective governments and warning that their captors will kill them, their family, and other prisoners, including women and children, unless the Afghan government stops executing Taliban prisoners.
Legendary standup comic Jackie Mason delivered his hilarious take on President Obama’s claim that $400 million in pallets of foreign currency flown to Iran aboard an unmarked jetliner the same day five American hostages were released from Iranian custody did not amount to ransom.
Not even Clinton’s best defenders can name one thing she has done for Israel. She has embraced the antisemitic Black Lives Matter movement, which accuses Israel of “genocide.” And she not only supported the Iran deal, but also chose a running mate who boycotted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 2015 speech against it.
