Posted on 05/21/2004 7:35:05 AM PDT by knighthawk
A Spanish radio journalist is being held in the Iraqi city of Najaf by a Shiite group linked to rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, state radio reported on Friday.
Spanish National Radio said its correspondent Fran Sevilla, who reported the Spanish troops' withdrawal from their base at Diwaniya earlier on Friday, was unharmed but his telephone was about to be confiscated.
"He was intercepted by a group of militants of the Shiite leader al-Sadr. He phoned to say where he was, in a mosque in Najaf, and that they were going to take away his phone," state radio editor Javier Arenas told the radio.
"He is physically fine."
The Spanish Government said in a statement it had "begun intense efforts to put an end to this situation as soon as possible".
"Our charge d'affaires (in Baghdad) is taking all kinds of diplomatic moves," a diplomatic source said.
Forces loyal to the cleric have launched an uprising across Iraq against the US-led occupation while Sadr, wanted in connection with the murder of another cleric, has been holed up in Najaf.
Mr Sevilla is a well-known Spanish journalist often sent on assignments around the world.
Earlier on Friday Sevilla reported from Diwaniya that the last of the Spanish troops had left their base and were on their way to Kuwait.
He said he was the last Spaniard left in the south-central Iraqi city.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's month-old Socialist government, elected three days after the March 11 train bombings killed 191 people in Madrid, has been withdrawing the Spanish troops, fulfilling a campaign promise made before the railway attacks.
Ping
Spain abandoned us. The terrorists can keep this one.
al-Sadr must have missed the memo that Spain has switched sides in the war...
Appeasing terrorists does not seem to work...
According to elmundo.es, Sevilla has been released.
So much for the liberal belief that apeasement and concilliation will work with these Islamic beasts. Spain bugs out to appease the terrorists and this is their reward. Islamofacists know only one language, FORCE.
But, but, but, the Spaniels have already surrendered...
Gee whizz ... It would seen that if'n them thar Ali Baba's would just ask them thar Spainynerds to disband their country, forin to git that thar Spainynerd back, they would shore do it.
Iraqi Insurgents Release Spanish Reporter
MADRID, Spain - Iraqi insurgents in Najaf freed a Spanish radio reporter after holding him captive for four hours, the correspondent's station said.
After his release, reporter Fran Sevilla called his wife in Madrid and the newsroom to say he was unharmed, Spanish National Radio said.
Sevilla said he was returning to Baghdad, said Aurora Minguez, a reporter on the station's international desk.
Sevilla had reported Friday morning on the withdrawal of Spanish troops from a base in another city, Diwaniyah, and was intercepted after he traveled to Najaf to report on a sermon from the anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, Spanish National Radio said.
He had called the newsroom in Madrid on a satellite phone as he was being abducted and managed to speak briefly before the line went dead, Spanish National Radio said.
Sevilla, 43, is an award-winning correspondent who covered the Iraq war, the war in Afghanistan, conflicts in Central America and the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
His most recent stint in Iraq began last week when he traveled to Diwaniyah to cover the withdrawal of Spanish troops.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=518&ncid=732&e=3&u=/ap/20040521/ap_on_re_eu/spain_iraq_reporter
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