An Iraqi sheikh involved in negotiations to try to free two French journalists taken hostage in Iraq said today there were "excellent signs" the men would be released soon.
"We have reached positive, tangible results regarding the release of the two French journalists," Sheikh Hisham Duleimi said. "The signs are good, excellent," he said, adding that the journalists were in good health. He did not say whether he was in direct contact with the group holding the journalists, whose release he expected soon.
Sheikh Duleimi has been involved in negotiations which have secured the release of other foreigners taken hostage by insurgents in Iraq.
The group holding Mr Christian Chesnot and Mr Georges Malbrunot said their fate would be soon be decided. "The Islamic Army's legal committee will soon announce its decision. We have not delegated any group or person to negotiate or talk on our behalf," a statement posted on an Islamic website said.
The statement creates confusion over the two men's fate after reports yesterday suggested the pair had been handed over to another militant Iraqi group willing to negotiate their release.
The two men were kidnapped on August 20th by a group called the Islamic Army in Iraq. The kidnappers demanded France revoke its ban on Muslim headscarves being worn in schools or it would execute the two men. The deadline passed on Wednesday and France put the ban into force yesterday.
Hopes rose yesterday when the editor at the newspaper where one of the reporters worked confirmed he had been informed that the pair had been handed over to a Sunni group.
Le Figaroeditor Mr Jean de Belot said: "The latest information is that Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot have been handed over by the Islamic Army in Iraq to an Iraqi Sunni guerrilla group ... an opposition that we know for a few days now has been in favour of the release of the hostages."
Agencies