2 Filipino Women Abducted in Northern Iraq

Update: The woman have been released.

Two Filipino women have been kidnapped on a road linking the Iraqi capital Baghdad to the Kurdish city of Erbil, security and local officials say.

The women were traveling to northern Iraq with three other Filipino nationals on Saturday when their car broke down, Reuters reported.

When the two women exited the car, unidentified men driving a yellow car pulled over and took them, a security source said.

The identity and motivation of the kidnappers is still unknown and no group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping yet.

There has been a surge in violence and abduction incidents by remnants of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the area over the past weeks.

Last month, at least eight members of security forces were abducted and later killed by Daesh on that same highway.

Iraq has been wracked by a vicious cycle of violence and insecurity since the 2003 US invasion of the country, which has destroyed the nation’s infrastructure.