The Swords of Righteousness Brigade (Arabic: سرايا سيوف الحق, sometimes translated as the Swords of Truth Brigade) is a

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

group which kidnapped four

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

peace activist A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals, such as the ending of a particular war (or wars) or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world peac ...

s in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

on 26 November 2005, murdered one, Tom Fox, and held the remaining three hostages until March 22, 2006, when coalition forces raided the place where the hostages were held, known as the 2005-2006 Christian Peacemaker hostage crisis. The group was unknown prior to this kidnapping. However, the U.S.-based

SITE Institute The Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE) Institute was an organization that tracked the online activity of terrorist organizations. The SITE Institute was founded in 2002 by Rita Katz and Josh Devon, who had left the Investigative ...

, a terrorism research organization, said that it had found ties between the Swords of Righteousness Brigade and the

Islamic Army in Iraq The Islamic Army in Iraq (IAI) ( ar, الجيش الإسلامي في العراق ''al jaysh al islāmi fī'l-`irāq'') was one of a number of underground Islamist militant (or ''mujahideen'') organizations formed in Iraq following the 2003 invas ...

.'New fear for Iraq hostages'
, ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

'', December 13, 2005

Hostage crisis

In 2006, the human rights workers were freed, except for Tom Fox, an American Quaker, who was killed by the hostage takers. Along with Tom Fox, two Canadians,

James Loney James Anthony Loney (born May 7, 1984) is an American former professional baseball first baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox, Tampa Bay Rays, and New York Mets, and in Korea Baseball Org ...

and

Harmeet Singh Sooden Harmeet Singh Sooden (born 1973) is a Canadian-New Zealand anti-war activist who volunteered for the international NGO Christian Peacemaker Teams in Iraq. He was held captive in Baghdad with three others for almost four months until being freed ...

, and Briton

Norman Kember Norman Frank Kember (born 1931) is an emeritus professor of biophysics at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry and a Christian pacifist active in campaigning on issues of war and peace. As a Baptist, he is a long-standing member of ...

were also kidnapped. Their release reportedly involved the Canadian elite forces JTF-2, British SAS and American Special Forces operatives.

References

External links

Free The Captives
Factions in the Iraq War Rebel groups in Iraq Iraqi insurgency (2003–2011) {{Iraq-War-stub

Hostage crisis

See also

References

External links