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Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail More Yahoo! Services Account Options New User? Sign Up Sign In Help Yahoo! Search web search Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Africa Europe Latin America Middle East North America Britain hails release of Iraq hostage AFP - Thursday, December 31 Send IM Story Print LONDON (AFP) - – Britain hailed the release of a computer expert in Iraq after an "unspeakable" 31-month ordeal, amid reports Thursday militants were handed over to secure his freedom and that Iran was behind the kidnapping. The family of Peter Moore, 36, welcomed his release as a "complete and wonderful shock", while the British government said it was due to improved reconciliation in the violence-scarred country. "It's like a big black cloud has been hanging over me and it has lifted now," said Moore's mother Avril Sweeney, 54, adding: "Two-and-a-half years and, all of a sudden, it's not there anymore. I can smile again." Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "I am hugely relieved by the wonderful news that Peter has been freed, and will be reunited with his family as quickly as possible." Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Moore, now in the care of British embassy staff in Baghdad, was "in a remarkable frame of mind" after an "unspeakable two and a half years of misery, fear and uncertainty." Moore, an IT consultant working for US firm BearingPoint, was kidnapped along with his four bodyguards from the finance ministry in Baghdad in May 2007, by some 40 gunmen from a group called the League of the Righteous. The bodies of bodyguards Jason Swindlehurst, 38, and Jason Creswell, 39, were handed over to Britain in June, followed by that of Alec MacLachlan in September. The fate of the fourth, Alan McMenemy, is unknown, but British officials say they believe he is dead. Timeline of Britons held in Iraq since 2007 British media reported Thursday the release was cemented after the United States handed over the captured commander of the League of the Righteous and some of his followers to Iraqi authorities. A US military spokesman said Thursday the leader of the group is to be handed over to Iraqi authorities. "The United States has complied with an Iraqi government request in accordance with the US-Iraqi Security Agreement and the rule of law to transfer AAH (Asaib al-Haq) members, to include Qais al-Khazaali, from US custody to Iraqi custody pursuant to an Iraqi arrest warrant," the spokesman said. "This has been occurring over a seven month period." Asaib al-Haq is the Arabic for League of the Righteous. Although it was not immediately clear if Khazaali was still in US custody or not, the BBC reported that he had been handed over "very recently", citing a senior British government official. Before detainees are freed by the US, Iraq evaluates whether there is any evidence that warrants a criminal prosecution before approving their release. On Wednesday, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said that the US army has handed over several prisoners to the Iraqi government, while a source within the League of the Righteous told AFP negotiations were underway to ensure that among the several hundred detainees being transferred was Khazaali. In June, Qais al-Khazaali's brother Laith was freed from a US prison, fuelling hopes of movement on the hostages, but those were lowered when two bodies were handed over a few days later. Similarly, around 200 members of the League of the Righteous were freed in September, the same month another body was handed over to Britain. The League of the Righteous is made up of militants who broke away from the Mahdi Army, the former militia of Shiite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr. Miliband denied any direct deal had been done to secure Moore's release. "The British Government does not make substantive concessions to hostage takers, anywhere and any place, and there was no such substantive concession in this case," he said on Wednesday. Miliband said Moore's release had been secured following bolstered reconciliation between former rival factions, driven by the Iraqi government. The Guardian newspaper, meanwhile, reported that the operation in which the five were seized in 2007 was masterminded by Iran's Revolutionary Guard. A former unnamed Revolutionary Guard was quoted saying the five were taken across the border and held in two camps, including one called Qasser Shiereen. "It was an Iranian kidnap, led by the Revolutionary Guard, carried out by the Al-Quds brigade," he was quoted as saying. "My contact works for Al-Quds. He took part in the planning of the kidnap and he watched the kidnapping as it was taking place. He told me that they spent two days at the Qasser Shiereen camp. "They then took them deep inside Iran." Moore was targeted because he was installing a computer tracking system that would show how vast amounts of international aid money from Iraqi institutions was diverted to Iran's militia groups in Iraq, according to the paper. The Foreign Office told the paper: "We have no evidence that the British hostages, including Peter Moore, were held in Iran." Moore reportedly told relatives, in a phone call after his release, he thought he was going to be shot in the head instead of being freed. He also asked about the four Britons kidnapped with him, apparently unaware of their fate. 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