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| Kidnap hope after Shia's handover | |
| (30 minutes later) | |
| An imprisoned militant whose release has been demanded by the kidnappers of five British hostages has been freed from US custody, officials have said. | |
| Shia leader Laith al-Khazali was handed over by the US military in Iraq to the Iraqi authorities on Sunday. | |
| The BBC's Frank Gardner said the move was "the most promising news" since the Britons were seized in 2007. | The BBC's Frank Gardner said the move was "the most promising news" since the Britons were seized in 2007. |
| It could pave the way for al-Khazali's Shia group to join the political process and release the men, he added. | It could pave the way for al-Khazali's Shia group to join the political process and release the men, he added. |
| The British embassy in Iraq said the handover was part of the generation reconciliation process with the group Asa'ib al-Haq or the Leagues of the Righteous. | |
| Members of the group seized the British hostages - a computer expert and his four bodyguards - when they were working in Baghdad's Iraqi Finance Ministry in May 2007. | |
| Laith al-Khazali is one of several imprisoned militants whose freedom has long been demanded by the kidnappers, but officials have insisted his release by the US is not part of a prisoner exchange. |