Kidnappers free seven-year-old boy
Iraqi kidnappers have released a seven-year-old Lebanese boy whom they had threatened to behad tomorrow if a €55,000 ransom was not paid.
It was not immediately clear if ransom was paid to secure the freedom of Mohammed Hamad, the son of a Lebanese man who has lived in Iraq for 30 years.
Mohammed was kidnapped last Friday while on his way home from school in Diyala province, east of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
His kidnappers had originally demanded demanded €118,000 for his release.
A Lebanese Foreign Ministry official said the government did not know whether the money had been paid.
The boy’s father, Abdel-Ghani Hamad, had said he was struggling to raise the ransom cash: “We’re a poor family and I love Iraq. “I’m now selling the stuff in my house just to get by.”
The father said the kidnappers asked him to sell his belongings and leave Iraq.
