Global Arab Network | Brown: British hostages held in Iraq likely to be dead

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Brown: British hostages held in Iraq likely to be dead

Global Arab Network - - Adam Turner

Thursday, 30 July 2009 01:02

Gordon Brown says it is very likely that two more of the British hostages held in Iraq are dead. Andy Davies (Channel 4) reports.
While offering sympathy to the families of Alan McMenemy and Alec MacLachlan, he added that the last of the five men originally kidnapped two years ago, Peter Moore, is still alive.

The prime minister also stated that the men were killed at the same time as their colleagues Jason Swindelhurst and Jason Creswell - whose bodies were handed over last month.

All of those killed served as bodyguards to Mr Moore, a computer programmer working for the Iraqi finance ministry.

Earlier today Sami al-Askari, a legislator in the governing Shi'ite Muslim alliance who is close to Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, told reporters: "Four of the hostages are dead."

According to the BBC, the Foreign Office last week told their families that the men were likely to be dead.

The bodies of two of the other hostages, security guards Jason Swindlehurst, 38, from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, and Jason Creswell, 39, originally from Glasgow, were handed over to authorities in Baghdad last month.

An inquest found the men died of gunshot wounds, although it is not clear exactly when they died

Timeline: Details of the key events in the kidnapping including videos

The five Britons were seized by about 40 armed men wearing police uniforms at the finance ministry in Baghdad on May 29 2007.

Some friends and relatives of the hostages expressed frustration at the UK's low-key approach to securing their release.

Former Foreign Office minister Kim Howells also questioned whether the UK had negotiated with the right people.
Dr Howells, who was at the Foreign Office from 2005 until October last year and is now chairman of parliament's intelligence and security committee, also voiced frustration at the difficulty of getting reliable information about the hostages.

Responsibility for the kidnapping was at first pinned on Muqtada al-Sadr's "mahdi army". (Channel 4 - UK)

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