British hostage freed in Iraq after more than 30 months
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, Dec 30, IRNA -- British hostage Peter Moore has been released after being held captive in Iraq for more than 30 months, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Wednesday.
Moore, an IT consultant working for US management consultancy Bearingpoint, was seized at the Iraqi Ministry of Finance in Baghdad in May 2007 along with four British bodyguards.
The bodies of three have been handed over to Britain earlier this year after being shot dead. Miliband said he believed the fourth, Alan McMenemy had also been killed and called for the body to be released.
Moore was said to be in good health and was taken to the British Embassy in Baghdad after being freed on Wednesday morning. He was expected to be reunited with his family after being debriefed.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was “hugely relieved by the wonderful news.” But he added that "at this moment of celebration, we also remember the families of British hostages who have been killed in Iraq and elsewhere.”
The group reported to have been seized by a group of about 40 men disguised as Iraqi policemen. According to the BBC, the men were understood to belong to an obscure militia known as Islamic Shia Resistance, which demanded the release of up to nine associates held in US military custody since early 2007.
Since their capture, the British government adopted a policy of keeping a low-profile while negotiating behind the scenes but it led to accusations from relatives that they had been forgotten.
Miliband insisted that the British government had made no "substantive concessions" to the kidnappers and attributed Moore's release to the process of reconciliation being carried out by the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki.
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End News / IRNA / News Code 869938
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