BASRA, Iraq (AFP) — An Iraqi translator kidnapped with a British journalist at the weekend in the southern city of Basra was freed on Wednesday, a member of a powerful Shiite militia said.
"Negotiations are continuing for the release of the British journalist," Harith al-Adhari, a director of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's office in Basra, told AFP.
"The translator has been released and is now at the Palace Sultan Hotel," he said.
The Briton and his Iraqi translator working for US television network CBS were taken at gunpoint by masked men from the hotel on Sunday. They have not been named.
Sadr's office had announced earlier on Wednesday that it had struck a deal with the kidnappers and that the reporter and his translator would be released "within hours."
It later said the kidnappers had become "cautious."
The Iraqi authorities on Monday announced they had launched an "intensive" search for the pair.
Witnesses said they were led away from their Basra hotel at gunpoint by a gang of about 10 masked men.
The witnesses identified one as a British photo-journalist who had previously worked in Basra, and the other as his Iraqi interpreter. Both men had flown to Basra from Baghdad and checked into the hotel on Saturday.
Britain's Press Association said that the kidnapped Briton had covered the fall of Baghdad in 2003 and worked for titles including the Sunday Telegraph, the New York Times and the Financial Times.
It quoted the hostage's wife as saying: "It is still early days. We are just praying for him to be safe."
The US network confirmed in a statement that two of its journalists had gone missing in Basra but gave few other details, wanting to protect their identities.
Oil-rich Basra province was handed over to Iraqi control in mid-December by British forces, who are now based at a nearby airport.
The province has been the scene of fierce turf wars between Sadr's Mahdi Army fighters and the rival Badr Brigades Shiite militia of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council led by Abdel Aziz al-Hakim.
Sadr's movement had on Tuesday distanced itself from the abductions.
"We denounce and condemn the abduction of journalists all over Iraq in general and in Basra in particular," it said. "We ask the abductors to release the journalists."
The Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said at least 208 journalists and media assistants have been killed in Iraq since March 2003.
Most are Iraqis who were killed by insurgent groups or militias angered by their coverage or ideologically opposed to their employers. Others have died when caught in crossfire.
Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni was killed in August 2004 by the extremist group the Islamic Army of Iraq, which also claimed the kidnapping of French journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, who were released in December 2004 after four months in captivity.
Other Westerners who have been abducted and later released include US freelancer Jill Carroll who was kidnapped in January 2006, French journalist Florence Aubenas who was taken in January 2005 and Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena who was seized in February 2005.
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