Baghdad, December 31: The only known survivor from five British nationals taken hostage in war-battered Iraq has been released alive from captivity.
The 39-year-old computer programmer, Peter Moore, was released to Iraqi officials on Wednesday morning and then transferred to the British embassy in Baghdad. A young man, Qais al-Ghazali, held by the US military, was being handed over for release to the Iraqi government in exchange, officials said.
British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband said Moore was in good health and delighted to be freed. “He was in a remarkable frame of mind given the two and a half years that he has had.”
Miliband claimed 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 Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Moore was captured with four other Britons in a raid by gunmen on the finance ministry in the Iraqi capital Baghdad in May 2007.
The others Britons captured with Moore — all security guards — were Alec Maclachlan from Llanelli in Wales, Alan McMenemy from Dumbarton in Scotland, Jason Swindlehurst and Jason Creswell. The bodies of Swindlehurst and Creswell were identified in June, followed by Maclachlan in September.
McMenemy is also believed to be dead, although his body has not been returned.
——Agencies