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The kidnappers of five Britons in Iraq claim to have agreed to trade one of their hostages for 10 detained Sadrist militants as part of a deal that could soon see all five men freed after two years in captivity.
In a statement released today, a spokesman for the hostage-takers said an agreement had been reached with Britain and the US to free the Britons gradually in return for the group of militants, which includes a former spokesman for Shia cleric Muqtadr al-Sadr, and a Lebanese Hezbollah leader captured in Iraq two years ago.
The deal, outlined by a Shia-aligned group called The League of the Righteous, sheds light on almost two years of covert negotiations between the British government and the hostage takers.
It also confirms suspicions that the hostages have been pawns in a regional power struggle that draws in Shia militant interests across Iraq, Lebanon and Iran. Efforts to finalise the deal were a factor in Britain's move to re-engage publicly Hezbollah's political wing in Lebanon this month.
A spokesman for the kidnappers, who identified himself as Abu Ali, said the handing over of a videotape last week, which showed one of the hostages, computer consultant Peter Moore, alive and well, was the first phase of the release agreement brokered with Britain. The tape was handed to the British embassy by an Iraqi member of parliament.
The spokesman said one of the hostages would be released imminently, along with up to eight men, all Sadrist loyalists, held by the US army in Iraq. The first to be freed is expected to be Laith al-Khazali, brother of the accused militant and Muqtadr al-Sadr's former spokesman, Qais al-Khazali. The final stage of the deal would see the Hezbollah figure, Ali Mousawi Dakdouk and Qais al-Khazali freed in return for Moore.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We've seen similar reports. This is a sensitive case. We are not going to comment on one media report on alleged remarks by people claiming to be hostage takers.
"We continue to do everything we can to try and secure the safe release of the hostages and remain extremely concerned for their safety. We call on those holding the hostages to release them immediately and unconditionally so that they can be reunited with their families and friends."
Britain has always insisted it would not make substantive concessions to hostage takers.
The US has long objected to the release of Qais al-Khazali, whom it accuses of co-ordinating an ambush in January 2007 in the Shia shrine city of Karbala, in which five US troops were killed. The US army claims the attack was facilitated by the elite al-Quds Brigades of the Iranian Army's Revolutionary Guards, whom western intelligence officials allege were training Shia militants from across the Arab world and using them as proxies in Iraq.
American officials have until now insisted he remain in custody to maintain a ceasefire between al-Sadr's Mehdi Army and coalition forces.
Dakdouk's future has been equally contentious. He is accused of being a 24-year veteran of Hezbollah's military wing, intrinsically linked to the Iranian Republican Guards. He is wanted by Israel, which claims he helped direct military operations against its forces throughout the 1990s and during the 2006 war in Lebanon.
The kidnappers yesterday for the first time acknowledged that Dakdouk was a senior member of the Lebanese organisation, branding him a "Hezbollah leader".
The trio were captured by British forces in southern Iraq on 20 March 2007. The five Britons were seized in Baghdad two months later, on 27 May, from a building linked to the Iraqi finance ministry.
Moore was a computer consultant who was training Iraqis. Four security consultants from the Canada-based security company Gardworld were seized with him. All five are believed to be in good health.
The kidnappers today denied being linked to the Mehdi army, from which they claim to have split in 2004. They acknowledged support from Iran and Hezbollah, but claimed it was moral backing only. "The connection to Hezbollah is through links to Hezbollah in Iraq, which is sponsored by the Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah," it said.
The British embassy in Baghdad did not return calls today. The embassy and MI6 have had contact with Iraqi politicians who have been seeking to persuade the hostage takers to release their captives.
The Sadrist-aligned spokesman told the Elaph website that Qais al-Khazali conducted negotiations with the US from the American-run Camp Cropper detention centre in Baghdad.
The US is scaling back its detention operations in Iraq and either freeing detainees in its two centres or handing them over to the Iraqi system.
Iraqi lawmakers were aware of an imminent deal last night, but did not know its specifics. Badr Organisation MP Leila al-Khafaj called on the US and Iraqi governments to stick to Iraqi law during any prisoner release. "I am surprised by this news of trading prisoners," she said. "There is a new strategic agreement in place which says that any prisoner releases must be based on Iraqi law. The Americans do not have any authority to do this unilaterally."
A Sadrist MP who did not want to be named said two advisers in Iraqi prime minister Nour al-Maliki's office had been instrumental in brokering the deal.
Al-Sadr's spokesman could not be reached.
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