Unconfirmed reports from Britain and Iraq indicate that a deal may have been struck to free five British hostages who were kidnapped almost two years ago in an Iraqi ministry in the heart of Baghdad. According to the Telegraph, the group that kidnapped the Britons said U.S. has agreed to turn over 10 senior “Special Groups” operatives to free the men. The Special Groups are what the United States calls the Iranian-backed Shia terror groups.
The group claimed that it had secured the freedom of 10 prominent Shia Muslim militants from US custody in Iraq. One of the men, Qais al Khazali, the group’s leader, had been accused of murdering five US soldiers in a raid on an army base near the city of Karbala in 2007. His brother Laith and Ali Mussa Daqduq, a Lebanese Hezbollah figure, were also reportedly included in the phased release agreement.
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