Baghdad: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki met members of the radical Shiite group believed to have kidnapped five Britons in Iraq two years ago after it said it had renounced violence, a government spokesman said.
The meeting came just days after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that two of the five were "very likely" to be dead, bringing to four the number of hostages killed by the League of the Righteous.
"The government welcomes the statement by the League of the Righteous that it renounces violence and supports the political process and efforts to achieve national unity," Ali al-Dabbagh said on state Al-Iraqiya television yesterday.
"We reached an agreement to resolve all problems, especially those regarding detainees who do not have Iraqi blood on their hands and against whom there is no evidence of
having committed crimes," he said, adding that the meeting was on Saturday.
The group kidnapped the five Britons -- an IT consultant and his four bodyguards -- from the finance ministry in Baghdad in May 2007, in an audacious operation by around 40
heavily armed militants posing as security personnel.
In March this year, it announced it was ready to exchange them for the release of 10 of its leaders being held by US forces in Iraq.
In the past two months, however, four of the hostages have been killed.
Bureau Report
