Al-Aribiya is reporting that three Americans have been kidnapped by militia in Baghdad.

مصادر للعربية: اختطاف 3 أميركيين في الدورة ببغداد على يد ميليشيات #العربية_عاجل

— العربية عاجل (@AlArabiya_Brk) January 17, 2016

or, for the non-Arabic readers among you,

We are reporting on Al Arabiya according to well informed sources that 3 #Americans have been kidnapped in #Baghdad by Militia members.

— Talal Al-Haj (@TalalAlhaj) January 17, 2016

Via The Independent:

According to Arab news channel Al-Arabiya, well-informed sources in Baghdad have confirmed that the kidnapping took place, although the story is yet to be verified.

The identities of the kidnapped Americans or the militias have not yet been confirmed.

It seems that Iran has revalidated a long-standing business model used in that part of the world for a few thousand years: kidnap for ransom.

It seems much more than a coincidence that after the United States gave up seven prisoners doing time for supplying Iran with prohibited items, along with foregoing prosecution on fourteen additional criminals in exchange for four Americans (leaving two still in Iranian custody) and agreeing to pay Iran $1.7 billion:

The United States is to repay Iran a $400 million debt and $1.3 billion in interest dating to the Islamic revolution, Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday.

The repayment, which settles a suit brought under an international legal tribunal, is separate from the tens of billions of dollars in frozen foreign accounts that Iran can now access after the end of nuclear sanctions.

That a Shiite militia in the Iranian puppet state of Iraq would kidnap three Americans.