Baghdad, December 30: British hostage Peter Moore has just been released alive in Iraq and handed to the British authorities in Baghdad after two-and-a-half years in captivity.
The computer expert was seized along with four British bodyguards, employed by the Canadian security firm GardaWorld, outside the Finance Ministry in Baghdad in May 2007.
In a statement today, Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Miliband said, “I am pleased to confirm that Peter Moore has been released today. Peter was set free by his captors this morning in Baghdad. He is now in the care of the British Embassy in Baghdad.
“I’ve just had a very emotional conversation with Peter. He’s in good health despite spending months in captivity. He’s obviously, to put it mildly, absolutely delighted with his release.
“He’s come through an unspeakable two and half years of misery and uncertainty … shared by his family.”
Miliband added that the joy and relief for Moore’s family will be mirrored by the anguish of the family of the remaining missing hostage Alan McMenemy.
The British Government has believed for some time that McMenemy is dead.
The Foreign Secretary called on the hostage-takers for his body to be returned as soon as possible.
Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued a statement welcoming the news.
“I am hugely relieved by the wonderful news that Peter has been freed, and will be reunited with his family as quickly as possible.
They have faced a terrible ordeal, and I know that the whole nation will share their joy that he is coming home. I pay tribute to all those who helped in the protracted effort to secure the release”, he said.
“At this moment of celebration, we also remember the families of British hostages who have been killed in Iraq and elsewhere. And we pledge to continue to do everything we can to bring British hostages back to their loved ones, including the remaining hostage of the group in Iraq, Alan McMenemy. I demand that the hostage takers return him to us.”
The bodies of Peter Moore’s other British security guards Jason Creswell, Jason Swindlehurst and Alec Maclachlan were returned to Britain earlier this year.
Moore, 36, from Lincoln in eastern England, had been working for a US management consultancy in Iraq at the time of his kidnap.
—Agencies