ANN ARBOR — Sgt. Ahmed Altaie, an Army reservist who was
kidnapped in Iraq, is the last remaining American service member still missing
in Iraq according to a report in The Detroit News.

The family has been awaiting his return for five years. A
spokesman for the Department of Defense has said that the search for the
45-year-old missing serviceman will not end until he is found.

Ahmed Altaie reportedly met his wife on a vacation in
Baghdad and repeatedly sneeked out of the Green Zone in civilian clothes to
visit her while he was deployed in Iraq by the Army. His wife now lives in
Ypsilanti.

Entifadh Qanbar, an Iraqi politician who is Altaie’s uncle,
said he has come close to securing his release in the past, but the family now
fears that time is running out.

The U.S. Central Command is expected to take over the rescue
effort from Afghanistan when the Army officially leaves Iraq, but the family is
afraid that they will be too far removed from the situation to be able to
conduct the necessary search effort.

The Altaie family originally fled Iraq for a new life in
order to escape Saddam Hussein’s regime according to relatives, settling in
Dearborn before moving to Ann Arbor.