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Oil worker kidnapping highlights Al-Qaida’s power

An oil worker in Anbar province was held hostage for weeks in an al-Qaida stronghold where security forces were afraid to venture. He was released for a $50,000 ransom.
Iraqi police officers of the Anbar 8th Battalion patrol in the Hurran Valley near the town of Haditha, 260 kms northwest of Baghdad on April 19, 2009. (ALI YUSSEF/AFP/Getty Images)

FALLUJAH - In late afternoon on Dec. 19, four cars filled with 10 men wielding automatic weapons and hand grenades stormed a worksite repairing oil infrastructure in Haditha, in Anbar province.

Omar Hassan Ali al-Fahdawi and three other oil workers, employees of a contractor called Al-Wadi, were taken hostage.

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