Hostages rescued by U.S. special forces were all Arabs: U.S. official

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The hostages rescued in a raid by U.S. special forces and Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces in northern Iraq were all Arabs, including local residents and Islamic State fighters held as suspected spies, a U.S. official said on Thursday. The official told Reuters that around 20 of the hostages were members of Iraqi security forces. "Some of the remainder were Daesh (Islamic State)... fighters that Daesh thought were spies," the official said. "The rest of them were citizens of the local town". (Reporting by Stephen Kalin; Editing by Michael Georgy/Mark Heinrich)