British Hostage Peter Moore Freed In Iraq

[PatrioticKnight]

Source: Sky News

British hostage Peter Moore has been freed after being held captive in Iraq for more than two-and-a-half years.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he had just had a "very moving" conversation with Mr Moore, who is now at the British Embassy in Baghdad.

The 36-year-old is in "good health", he said, but is undergoing medical checks.

He said the former hostage was "to put it mildly absolutely delighted" at his release and would be reunited with his family "as soon as possible".

"We are in close touch with Peter's family," he added.

"His family and friends are also deeply relieved that he has been released, that he has come through what has been an unspeakable two-and-a-half years of misery, fear and uncertainty."

The computer expert was seized along with his four British bodyguards at the finance ministry in Baghdad on May 29, 2007.

Fears for his safety grew after the bodies of three of the guards - Alec MacLachlan, Jason Swindlehurst and Jason Creswell - were handed over to UK authorities.

The family of Alan McMenemy, the fourth guard, was told by the Foreign Office in July he was "very likely" to have died.

Mr Miliband appealed for his kidnappers to release his body.

He said: "We have believed for some time that he has been killed, and his family have been told our view of his likely fate.

"I call today again in the strongest terms for the hostage-takers to return Alan's body as soon as possible."

He denied any direct deal had been done with the kidnappers to secure Mr Moore's release.

"The British Government does not make substantive concessions to hostage takers, anywhere and any place, and there was no such substantive concession in this case," he stressed.

Gordon Brown said he was "hugely relieved" that Mr Moore had been freed.

Mr Moore's father Graeme, 60, from Wigston, Leicestershire, said: "We are so relieved and we just want to get him home, back now to his family and friends.

"I'm breaking down, I'm just so overjoyed for the lad. It's been such a long haul."

watch the video http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/British-Hostage-Peter-Moore-Freed-In-Iraq/Article/200912415510749

[GTFPDQ]

Amazing. Glad that he is free after such a long time.

[nastyleg]

Damn those fucking jawa's. Very relieved that he is breathing.

[acf6]

Gald to see hes going home!!

[GTFPDQ]

Iran organised the kidnapping in Iraq of British hostage Peter Moore - freed on Wednesday after two-and-a-half years in captivity - it has been claimed.

The Guardian newspaper says Mr Moore and his four bodyguards were taken to a camp inside Iran within a day.

Three of the bodyguards were killed; the fourth is also thought to be dead.

There are suggestions that Mr Moore was seized because his IT work was designed to show aid flowing into Iraq was being diverted to groups supported by Iran.

The Guardian quoted an unnamed former Revolutionary Guard saying: "It was an Iranian kidnap, led by the Revolutionary Guard, carried out by the al-Quds brigade.

"My contact works for al-Quds. He took part in the planning of the kidnap and he watched the kidnapping as it was taking place. He told me that they spent two days at the Qasser Shiereen camp. They then took them deep inside Iran."

Witnesses

The newspaper also said a serving Iraqi government minister with close links to Iran had told its reporter it was an Iranian Revolutionary Guard operation.

"You don't think for a moment that those militia groups from Sadr City could have carried out a high-level kidnapping like this one," he is quoted as saying.

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said the newspaper's investigation did not provide conclusive proof the men were taken to Iran.

But he said the witnesses appeared to be credible and some had been re-interviewed by the BBC.

Fran and Pauline Sweeney said Mr Moore "sounded well and was cracking jokes"

He said: "It has long been known that the Shi'ite group who have been holding the men have links to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. But British officials have always been reluctant to point the finger at Iran."

But our correspondent said when he asked US General David Petraeus, the US's top military commander in the region, for his view this month, he said he thought "it was 90% certain" the Britons had been held in Iran.

The Foreign Office said it had no evidence to back up the claims.

"We are not in a position to say with any certainty where they were held during each and every single day of their two-and-a-half years in captivity," a spokesman said.

Hostages' bodies

On Wednesday, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the IT consultant from Lincoln, who was captured in Baghdad in May 2007, was in good health and "absolutely delighted" to be free.

The bodies of Jason Swindlehurst, from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, and Jason Creswell, of Glasgow, were returned to the UK in June 2009, followed by that of Alec MacLachlan, of Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, in September.

Mr Miliband said British officials believed the fourth guard - Alan McMenemy from Glasgow - was probably also dead and called for the immediate release of his body.

Mr Moore was in the British Embassy in Baghdad and would be reunited with his family as soon as possible, Mr Miliband said.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "He is seeing a doctor and speaking to people there. Our main priority is his welfare and to look after him and ensure he is in as fit a state as he can be. That will come before any formal debriefing sessions."

David Miliband: "I am pleased to confirm that Peter Moore has been released today"

Mr Moore had been working for US management consultancy Bearingpoint in Iraq. The other men were security contractors employed to guard him.

The group was captured at the Iraqi Ministry of Finance by about 40 men disguised as Iraqi policemen.

They were understood to belong to an obscure militia known as the Islamic Shia Resistance, which demanded the release of up to nine of their associates held in US military custody since early 2007.

Several had already been handed to the Iraqi government and some had since been freed under the reconciliation process.

Frank Gardner said a senior Whitehall official had confirmed that Qais Al-Khaz'ali - the leader of the group that kidnapped the five Britons in Baghdad - was released "very recently" by the US to the Iraqi authorities.

"The main person the abductors wanted back, I'm told, is out of US custody... and handed over to the Iraqis," he said.

Qais Al-Khazaali had been suspected of involvement in the kidnapping and eventual killing of five US soldiers, our correspondent added.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8435699.stm