Kidnappers have freed the cousin of Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, a source in the premier's office said on Sunday. "He has been freed and is now with his family in Baghdad," the source said, giving no more details. It was not clear when 75-year-old Ghazi Allawi, the prime minister's first cousin, was freed. A previously unknown Islamist group had seized him along with his wife and their daughter-in-law in Baghdad on Nov. 9. The women were released a week ago, Arab television channels said. The group had threatened to kill all three unless Allawi's government called off a U.S.-led assault on the rebel-held city of Falluja, alleged to have become a haven for foreign Islamist fighters, and freed prisoners.
The government said it would not be influenced by the abductions, which took place a day after the assault began. U.S. forces now control the city, where they say they have killed some 1,200 fighters and detained more than 1,000 suspected insurgents. Scores of Iraqis and foreigners have been seized by Islamic militant groups and criminal gangs. Some have been freed while others have been killed, several by beheading.
I wonder why they were freed, fear after Fallujah? |