BAQUBA – Two women from the Philippines kidnapped in Iraq on Saturday have been freed, the Diyala province police chief said on Sunday.
The women had been travelling with three compatriots on the road connecting Baghdad to oil city Kirkuk when their car broke down, two military sources said.
The two women got out of 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 yet clear, the sources said on Saturday.
There has been an increase in attacks and kidnappings by Islamic State militants over the past few weeks near the area where the women were taken.
At least eight members of the security forces were kidnapped and later killed by militants on the same highway last month. – Reporting by Adam Hadi in Baquba; writing by Raya Jalabi Editing by Keith Weir
