American freelance journalist Shelly Kittleson is kidnapped by armed men in Baghdad, Iraq.
BBC News →Armed conflicts and attacks: American freelance journalist Shelly Kittleson is kidnapped by armed men in Baghdad, Iraq.
American Citizen Kidnapped by Bandits
WASHINGTON, September 10.—State and War Department officials were aroused to-day over the kidnapping of an American citizen by Mexican bandits at Columbus, N.M. John Lowenbrand of McNicaus, said to be soldiers, carried to the border from Columbus and word sent back that he was being held for a $2,000,900 ransom. Information of the incident was first communicated to the War Department. It was at once taken up with Secretary Lansing, who sent representations to General Villa, through Consular Agent Carothers, demanding that the ranchman be released. Columbus is on the border of the State of Chihuahua, which is under Villa control. The administration has reports indicating that Villa is losing control of some of his forces in Northern Mexico, and that many of the soldiers have broken away from their commands and organized into belligerent bands, adding to the menacing conditions along the border. Assistant Secretary of War Breckenridge conferred with Secretary Lansing about the situation. It was stated that no orders had been sent to American commanders on the border. There was, however, an intimation that United States forces would not hesitate to cross the border to rescue the kidnapped American, if his whereabouts could be ascertained.
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Battle of Columbus (1916)
The Battle of Columbus, also known as the Burning of Columbus or the Columbus Raid, began on March 9, 1916, as a raid conducted by remnants of Pancho Villa's Division of the North on the small United States border town of Columbus, New Mexico, located 3 miles (4.8 km) north of the border with Mexico. The attack angered Americans, and President Woodrow Wilson ordered Brigadier General Pershing into Mexico.
Wikipedia →Pancho Villa Expedition
The Pancho Villa Expedition, now known officially in the United States as the Mexican Expedition but originally referred to as the 'Punitive Expedition, US Army,' was a military operation conducted by the United States Army against the paramilitary forces of Mexican revolutionary Francisco 'Pancho' Villa from March 14, 1916, to February 7, 1917, during the Mexican Revolution of 1910–1920. The expedition was launched in retaliation for Villa's attack on the town of Columbus, New Mexico, an incident of the larger Mexican Border War.
Wikipedia →Iran hostage crisis
The Iran hostage crisis began on November 4, 1979, when 66 Americans, including diplomats and other civilian personnel, were taken hostage at the Embassy of the United States in Tehran, with 52 of them being held until January 20, 1981. The incident occurred after the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line stormed and occupied the building in the months following the Iranian Revolution. With support from Ruhollah Khomeini, who had led the Iranian Revolution and would eventually establish the present-day Islamic Republic of Iran, the hostage-takers held the U.S. in a prolonged diplomatic crisis.
Wikipedia →James Foley (journalist)
James Wright Foley (October 18, 1973 – c. August 19, 2014) was an American journalist and video reporter. While working as a freelance war correspondent during the Syrian Civil War, he was abducted on November 22, 2012, in northwestern Syria. He was murdered by decapitation in August 2014 purportedly as a response to American airstrikes in Iraq, thus becoming the first American citizen to be murdered by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
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