A video grab showing Issa Salomi.

THE Pentagon has acknowledged that a US contractor for the Defence Department is missing in Baghdad, an apparent confirmation of a Shiite militant group’s claim this week that it abducted an American in Baghdad last month.

The case marks the first reported kidnapping of a US citizen in Iraq in more than 18 months.

The League of the Righteous, a militant group that has kidnapped Westerners in Iraq in the past, posted a statement and video on its website showing the hostage.

The statement demanded the release of militants who have fought US forces and punishment of the guards employed by Blackwater Worldwide – now known as Xe Services – involved in a shooting incident in Baghdad in 2007 that killed 14 Iraqis.

The Pentagon said in a statement that contractor Issa Salomi, 60, of El Cajon, California, has been missing since January 23. mr Salomi’s wife, Muna, confirmed the man in the video was her husband.

The Pentagon said search and recovery efforts were going on but gave no additional information.

General Hussein Kamal, the Iraqi Interior Ministry’s director of intelligence and criminal investigations, said mr Salomi was kidnapped in Karrada, an affluent district in central Baghdad.

Another Iraqi intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said mr Salomi, who is of Iraqi decent, was visiting relatives when he was taken hostage.

Last month, Qais al-Khazali, a leading figure in the League of the Righteous, was released from US custody and freed by Iraqi officials. his release came a day after the release of British hostage Peter Moore, who was abducted in 2006 from the Iraqi Finance Ministry, along with four bodyguards.

The League of the Righteous has been in reconciliation talks with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government. but last week, group leaders accused the government of going back on its promise to release detainees.

News of the kidnapping came as US General David Petraeus slammed the ”barbaric actions” of al-Qaeda following attacks on Shiite pilgrims.

”Iraqi officials said at least 41 people were killed and dozens wounded in Friday’s attack on a crowd of pilgrims near Karbala.

WASHINGTON POST, AGENCIES