2 Filipinas kidnapped in Iraq

BAQUBA, IRAQ: Two Filipina women were kidnapped on Saturday in Iraq on a road connecting Baghdad to oil city Kirkuk, military, police, and local officials told Reuters.

The women were travelling with three other nationals of the Philippines on their way to Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region, when their car broke down, two military sources said.

The two women exited the car after it broke down.

Unknown men drove by in a yellow car and took them, a military source said.

The identities, affiliation, and motivation of the kidnappers was not immediately clear, the sources said. There has been an uptick in attacks and kidnappings by Islamic State militants over the past few weeks near the area the women were taken from. At least eight members of the security forces were kidnapped and later killed by the ultra-hardline militants on that same highway last month.