French journalist and interpreter go missing in Iraq

A French reporter and her interpreter are missing in Iraq, the newspaper Liberation said today.

Liberation said it has not had contact with Florence Aubenas for more than 24 hours. French, Iraqi and US authorities have been alerted, it added.

She and her interpreter Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi “have not been seen since they left their hotel on Wednesday morning” in Baghdad, Liberation said.

Aubenas arrived in the Iraqi capital on December 16.

Two other French journalists, kidnapped in Iraq in August, were freed just before Christmas.