Kidnapped Reporter To Be Released ‘Within Hours’

The British CBS journalist and Iraqi interpreter kidnapped in Basra will be released later today, according to news wire reports.

A deal has been reached with the kidnappers to release them, a spokesman for the Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has said, according to the Associated Press and Agence France Presse.

Harith al-Ethari, a director of al-Sadr’s office in the southern Iraqi city, told AP: “We reached an agreement with kidnappers to hand over the Iraqi interpreter to the police command in Basra and the British journalist will be handed over to al-Sadr’s office in Basra this afternoon.”

AFP reported that the men would be released “within hours”.

A gang of masked and armed men abducted the British journalist and Iraqi interpreter from a hotel lobby on Sunday.

CBS News did not identify the pair and has requested media outlets not to release their names if obtained.

Last July, BBC journalist Alan Johnston was released after almost four months in captivity in Gaza City.

The Guardian foreign correspondent, Rory Carroll, spent 36 hours in captivity after being kidnapped by gunmen in Baghdad in October 2005.

– By Stephen Brook

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