#OpFOQ

#OpFOQ: All 26 Hostages Freed

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

As reported in the international media (CNN, BBC), all twenty-six Qatari hostages held in Iraq since December 2015 were released from Iraq today.

The Qatari hostages have been the subject of a social media campaign to bring attention to their plight that is known as “OpFOQ,” a campaign that this website started to report on from the day it was launched in March 2017.
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The Deep Repercussions of a Bombing in Syria

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Yesterday’s violent suicide bombing that killed at least 112 refugees in a bus convoy near Aleppo, Syria, derailed at least temporarily a complicated operation to evacuate Syrian civilians from four besieged towns in that country as well as help for the families of twenty-six Qatari men held hostage in Iraq.

The Qatari hostages have been the subject of a social media campaign to bring attention to their plight that is known as “OpFOQ,” and this website started to report on that campaign from the day it was launched.
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25 Million Euros for a Whistleblower? Help #OpFOQ Rescue Two Dozen Hostages

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Twenty-five lives are at stake.

In less than a week, #OpFOQ has learned more than any other interested party has learned about two dozen hostages kidnapped in December 2015 in Iraq in more than eleven months. #OpFOQ is a campaign to focus attention on this mass kidnapping, to force the government of Iran to divulge what it knows about the whereabouts and health of the Qatari hostages, and to earn the freedom of the hostages.

On March 27, #OpFOQ learned that at least one of the hostages is still alive and published this information along with a photograph. This represented the first break in the case since two hostages were freed in April 2016.

On March 29, the #OpFOQ campaign published a Tweet without clarification that further established that it is acquiring information about the hostage situation. It read: “We have learned of a persistent rumor that a Qatari national maybe behind the kidnappings. Our intel suggest this is entirely false.” No further comment has been posted on Twitter and no elaboration has been publicly offered to journalists.
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