Over 100 from Iraqi group who killed Britons freed

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BAGHDAD — More than 100 Iraqi Shiite insurgents whose organisation kidnapped five Britons and killed at least three of them have been released from prison in the past week, the group said on Sunday.

"I can confirm the release of a number of our group last night... 23 were freed yesterday," Salam al-Maliki, a spokesman for the League of the Righteous, told AFP.

"Eighty-seven of our group were released last week, and 120 are supposed to be freed this week."

Maliki said the releases "came as part of negotiations we are holding with the Iraqi government."

The League of the Righteous was behind the kidnap of British IT expert Peter Moore and his four bodyguards from the finance ministry in Baghdad in May 2007.

The bodies of two bodyguards, Jason Swindlehurst, 38, and Jason Creswell, 39, were handed over to Britain in June this year.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned the following month that the two other bodyguards, Alan McMenemy and Alec MacLachlan, were "very likely" dead. The latter's body was handed over to Britain earlier this month.

The League of the Righteous is also suspected of being behind an attack in January 2007 that killed one US soldier and led to the abduction of four others, all of whom were later found dead.

"At the request of the government of Iraq and pursuant to the bilateral Iraq-US security agreement, the US released the detainees to guarantors provided by the government of Iraq," US Captain Brad Kimberly told AFP.

"The release was facilitated by the government of Iraq as part of its efforts toward national unity."

Kimberly declined to specify how many members of the group were released or give details of individual detainees.

A spokesman for the British Embassy in Baghdad told AFP that Britain was not negotiating with the group for Moore's release.