Scott Taylor (journalist) - 2004 Kidnapping and Release

2004 Kidnapping and Release

On September 7, 2004, Scott Taylor and Turkish journalist Zeynep Tugrul, who works for the Turkish newspaper Sabah, arrived in Iraq to report on the Invasion of Iraq by the United States Military. Their reporting brought them to the city of Tal Afar in the predominantly Turkmen North, where the U.S was on the verge of major action against mujahedeen fighters. At a quarter past 7:00 on September 7, Taylor and Zeynep met with an Iraqi police checkpoint, planning to get directions to their contact in Tal Afar, Doctor Jashar. They were directed to a waiting car filled with masked gunmen, whom they believed to be Iraqi Special Forces.

They were driven by the masked gunmen to a resistance safe house, where they were kidnapped by Ansar al-Islam, a radical Islamist group and accused of being spies. Scott and Zeynep were held captive for five days by the Mujahedeen in which they were transported to numerous resistance sites, tortured for information, threatened with execution and continually beaten.

On September 12, Mujahedeen agents threw Scott Taylor into an awaiting cab in northern Iraq with next to no money and abruptly released him, having negotiated a release with the Iraqi Turkmen Front and Zeynep Tugrul, who had been released earlier. His release created a wave of international media attention, granting him interviews in which he told the story of his kidnapping.