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.
TEL AVIV – U.S. officials and others briefed on the operation have provided new details about the transfer of $400 million in cash to Tehran earlier this year, depicting what the Wall Street Journal has described as a “tightly scripted
After refusing to divulge how the payment was transferred, the State Department has now refused to answer repeated requests about when it sent to Iran a sum of $1.3 billion, which was part of the same settlement for which the Obama administration delivered $400 million in pallets of foreign currency flown aboard an unmarked jetliner in January. The cash was flown in the same day five American hostages were released from Iranian custody.
Questions continue to linger about the Obama administration’s decision to deliver $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.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) called the $400 million airlifted to the Iranian regime in hard foreign currency in January “ransom to the ayatollahs.”
The latest online audio recording from al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri encourages jihadis to take Westerners hostage so they can be used in prisoner exchanges.
As with previous issues, the latest release of the Islamic State’s propaganda magazine Dabiq features a piece ostensibly written by hostage John Cantlie, a British photographer kidnapped in 2012 alongside subsequently murdered American journalist James Foley.
Last year, Japan was rocked by the kidnapping and murder of journalist Kenji Goto and his friend Haruna Yukawa by the Islamic State in Syria. Another Japanese journalist, Junpei Yasuda, was abducted in Syria last year, and on Thursday, he
Reports began to surface around 8:50 PM local time that a man armed with a knife was holding a woman hostage in Central London’s Leicester Square. Metropolitan Police have confirmed that the situation has been “resolved,” with one man under arrest for causing the incident.
Senator John McCain (R-AZ), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said on Sunday that he may subpoena the 10 U.S. sailors held prisoner by Iran in January to testify about the incident.
Iran celebrated the 37th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution on Thursday, with plenty of anti-America, anti-Israeli, and anti-Western sentiment on hand, beyond re-enacting the capture of 10 American sailors in January.
The U.S. Navy has condemned Iran’s new propaganda film, in which a U.S. sailor is shown weeping in captivity, as “outrageous and unacceptable.” Meanwhile, a defiant Iran is re-enacting the capture of the American sailors on January 10 as street theater, during celebrations marking the anniversary of the Iranian revolution.
Iran has released new footage of the American sailors they illegally detained on the eve of President Obama’s final State of the Union address, including photos of one U.S. sailor crying while in detention.
On Wednesday, House Foreign Relations Committee chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, containing a list of questions about the $1.7 billion payment made to Iran.
Former Iranian hostage Matthew Trevithick gave some chilling details of his captivity to CNN’s Anderson Cooper, including an interrogator saying of fellow hostage Jason Rezaian: “He’s never leaving, and neither are you.”
There are still three American citizens missing in Iraq, and the most likely culprits are Iran-backed Shiite militia. They were snatched from a private residence in Baghdad by gunmen on January 16, and there has been little progress in finding them, beyond Iraqi intelligence guessing they ended up in the Shiite precincts of Sadr City, where numerous other kidnap victims have resurfaced.
On Friday, North Korea announced the arrest of University of Virginia student Otto Frederick Warmbier, 21, for “perpetrating a hostile act” against the Communist state, with the “tacit connivance of the U.S. government and under its manipulation.”
What would you do after being held hostage in an Iranian dungeon for a year and a half on kangaroo-court charges of “espionage?” Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian said he wants to catch up on the new Star Wars movie and watch some basketball games.
The United States’ sent Iran $400 million in debt plus $1.3 billion in interest, and the money was disbursed as a ransom payment for four American hostages of the Islamic regime, a top Iranian commander said Wednesday afternoon. Therefore, the U.S. paid the Iranian regime $425 million dollars per American hostage, according to the commander.
None of the Iranians freed as part of a prisoner exchange deal with the Obama Administration last week actually left the country, U.S. officials told ABC News.
A week after the Iranian military arrested, detained overnight, and later released ten U.S. sailors, Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday he was “very angry” that they Ayatollah’s militants decided to use the situation for propaganda purposes, in an apparent violation of the Geneva Conventions.
The Saharan nation of Burkina Faso was the scene of the latest terrorist hostage crisis, as al-Qaeda fighters staged a hotel raid similar to the November attack in Mali. This time, the death toll included 28 people from 18 different countries, plus 50 civilians wounded, and 156 hostages freed.
Americans are elated that five U.S. citizens held captive in Iran have been freed–but also worry about the steep cost.
