Positive note on Iraq hostage journalists: French editor

A Paris newspaper editor said there had been positive movement in the effort to free two captive French journalists in Iraq, while a separate militant group said it had killed three Turkish captives.

The kidnappers in Iraq have handed over the pair to an Iraqi Sunni Muslim opposition group, Jean de Belot, managing editor of Le Figaro newspaper, said yesterday on France-Info radio.

But he stressed that their status wasn’t completely clear. ”We must be prudent in this kind of mixed-up situation because we know well that until the good news arrives, we can’t let ourselves be absolutely reassured.” He added the opposition favours the release of the hostages.

The reports came during a day of frantic activity to win the releases, efforts that were spurred on by the passage of a deadline for the French government to revoke a ban on the wearing of Muslim headscarves in public schools that went into effect yesterday.

A militant group calling itself The Islamic Army of Iraq said it had kidnapped the reporters and demanded that France lift its ban on Islamic headscarves in public schools, but the government refused.

Charles Lambroschini, a deputy managing editor at Le Figaro, said the original kidnappers were fundamentalists and that they had handed the reporters to members of the Iraqi opposition “who favour negotiation.”

French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier was cautiously optimistic about the journalists’ safety.

“According to the indications which were given to us and we are studying at this moment with caution, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot are alive, in good health and are being well treated,” he said at a news conference in Amman, Jordan.