Two British hostages feared dead after bodies found in Iraq

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Saturday, June 20, 2009

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Iraq War

Other Iraq War stories

• 2 November 2009: Suspected Iraqi bomber murders investigator
• 22 June 2009: Two British hostages feared dead after bodies found in Iraq
• 18 June 2009: $106 billion war bill backed by U.S. House of Representatives
• 15 June 2009: UK inquiry into Iraq war will be held in private
• 1 May 2009: Iraqi based war video game pulled by publisher

Iraqi security forces

Background

• Wikipedia article about the Iraq War

The British government has said it fears that two bodies handed back by the Iraqi authorities are those of two Britons captured in 2007. Foreign Secretary David Miliband said that forensic tests were currently being conducted to determine whether they were indeed those of the hostages.

In May 2007, four security guards and an IT consultant, Peter Moore, were kidnapped at the Ministry of Finance by armed militants of the Islamic Shiite resistance. The kidnappers released a video of the captives, saying that one will be killed if British forces do not withdraw from Iraq.

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Miliband said that "we have never speculated on the outcome of this case although we have been working intensively on it, so the overriding feeling today is one of deep sadness and fear. Our immediate thoughts are clearly with the families of the five Britons taken hostage in Baghdad in May 2007."

Foreign Office sources have suggested that the bodies have been dead for several months.

Sources

• "Fear Iraq bodies are UK hostages". BBC News Online, June 20, 2009
• "Bodies of two British hostages found in Iraq". Telegraph UK, June 20, 2009
• "Two bodies feared to be hostages held in Iraq passed to Britain". The Guardian, June 20, 2009
  

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