Sadr aides: Release journo
13/08/2004 13:58  - (SA)  

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This image from a video sent to a news agency shows James Brandon identifying himself as a journalist working for the Sunday Telegraph. (AP)

Videotape: We will kill journo US: We won't stop fighting Iraq: 165 dead in 24 hours Iraqi police arrest journos Four journos kidnapped in Iraq

Baghdad - Aides to militia leader Moqtada Sadr on Friday called on the kidnappers of a British journalist in the southern Iraqi city of Basra to release him immediately.

Sunday Telegraph reporter James Brandon was abducted at gunpoint from his hotel in Basra late on Thursday, the hotel management and Britain's Foreign Office said.

The Sunday Telegraph said it was extremely concerned about him.

Just hours earlier, a shadowy Shiite group warned that it would kill all those cooperating with British troops in apparent retaliation for a United States-led assault on Najaf to the north.

But it was not immediately clear if the group was involved in the kidnapping, or whether it has any direct links to Sadr's Mehdi Army, which has been locked in fierce fighting with US and Iraqi government troops in Najaf.

"Those who kidnapped the British journalist are unlikely to be from the Mehdi Army, but if they are then they have disobeyed Sayed Moqtada's orders who has specifically condemned the kidnapping of journalists," Sayed Hazem al-Araji said.

Sheikh Ahmed al-Maliky, a deputy governor and Sadr aide in Basra also called on those holding the Briton to release him.

- AFP

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