ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – A US citizen present at the Lalezar Hotel has gone missing after forces affiliated with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) raided the premises on August 22 to arrest People’s Front leader Lahur Sheikh Jangi.

The citizen is believed to be Brian Wilson of Ohio, who is reportedly a US Air Force veteran who participated in the war against former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein before moving to Syria in 2014, where he fought against the Islamic State (ISIS) alongside Kurdish militant forces.

Wilson, who reportedly trained the fighters of Jangi’s Scorpion forces went missing after PUK-affiliated forces raided Jangi’s residence, where they engaged in a gunfight using light and heavy weaponry, with the People’s Front party extending a letter to the Kurdistan Region’s Independent Commission for Human Rights to reveal the Wilson’s fate, spokesperson Suleiman Muhsin told The New Region on Saturday.

The Lalezar battle killed more than a dozen on Jangi’s side and saw the arrest of multiple others, with at least three PUK-affiliated fighters also dying in the immediate aftermath of the operation with 19 more wounded, before ultimately leading to the arrest of the People’s Front leader and his brother Polat Sheikh Jangi.

Shortly after Jangi’s arrest, footage emerged on social media depicting the PUK-affiliated forces mistreating the detainees, including verbal and physical abuse, as well as subjecting the stripped and vulnerable prisoners to humiliation.

The PUK-linked Kurdistan Region Security Agency (Asayish) on Wednesday published a seven-page document implicating People’s Front leader Lahur Sheikh Jangi in an assassination attempt against PUK leader Bafel Talabani.