BASRA, Iraq (AFP) — Cautious kidnappers have delayed freeing a British journalist abducted at the weekend in Iraq’s southern city of Basra but a deal for his release remains in place, a Shiite militia said on Wednesday.
“The kidnappers are cautious. All the indications are positive and we are optimistic. We expect him to arrive any momenent. There is no change in the deal,” said Harith al-Edhari, a director of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s office in Basra.
Sadr’s office had announced earlier on Wednesday that it had struck a deal with the kidnappers and that the reporter would be released “within hours.”
The Briton and his Iraqi translator working for US television network CBS were taken at gunpoint by masked men from their hotel on Sunday. They have not been named and the fate of the translator was not immediately clear.
The Iraqi authorities on Monday announced they had launched an “intensive” search for the pair.
Witnesses said they were led away from the Palace Sultan Hotel in Basra at gunpoint by a gang of about 10 gunmen.