Iraqi security forces investigating the abduction of 18 Turkish construction workers raided the Baghdad headquarters of a powerful Iranian-backed Shiite militia overnight, security sources and officials said Friday. Gunmen in military uniform had seized the Turks Wednesday from a sports stadium they were building in northeastern Baghdad, in what Ankara said appeared to have been a targeted kidnapping. The militia, Kataeb Hezbollah, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Baghdad has struggled to rein in Shiite armed groups, many of which fought the U.S. occupation and are now seen as a critical deterrent against the militants of ISIS, who have vowed to march on the capital after seizing large swaths of the north and west last summer. The city has also seen a proliferation in recent years of well-armed criminal gangs carrying out contract killings, kidnappings and extortion. Diplomats have said Turkey could suffer reprisals after abandoning months of reticence to launch airstrikes against ISIS in neighboring Syria and open its bases to a U.S.-led coalition fighting the militants. Saad al-Hadithi, a spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, said security forces had come under fire Thursday night when they tried to raid a house on Palestine Street in Baghdad's eastern district of Mohandessen. Intelligence had indicated the presence there of a member of the group involved in the Turks' abduction, he said. A resident of Palestine Street said the fighting lasted for several hours. Hadithi would not confirm or deny that the suspect had been apprehended, and would not comment on his possible affiliation with Kataeb or any other group. A spokesman for the Hashid Shaabi, a state body overseeing armed groups fighting ISIS including Kataeb, denied the militia had any connection to the missing Turks. Karim al-Nuri said a "routine search" had escalated into a quarrel that left one soldier dead and two militia members wounded. "The friction started due to accusations that the Turkish workers were kidnapped by Kataeb. Following the security forces' search, this allegation was proven wrong," Nuri said. A security source said the army was searching the headquarters and surrounding buildings in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood, but had not yet found any trace of the Turkish hostages. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu spoke to his Iraqi counterpart and thanked him for his efforts, while vowing that Turkey would do everything necessary to ensure the hostages' release, sources in his office said.
