Four Iraqis arrested over Carroll kidnapping

US Marines have arrested four Iraqi men in connection with the kidnapping of US journalist Jill Carroll, who was freed last March after 82 days in captivity, a US spokesman said today.

Major General William Caldwell said the four, who were not identified, were arrested in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, but he did not say when. Caldwell said Carroll, who works for The Christian Science Monitor, was held seven miles west of Fallujah before she was freed on March 30.

The 28-year-old journalist was kidnapped on January 7 in west Baghdad and her Iraqi interpreter was shot dead. She was released on March 30 near a Sunni Arab political party office in Baghdad and returned to the United States on April 2.

The kidnappers, a formerly unknown group calling themselves the Revenge Brigade, had demanded the release of all female detainees in Iraq, saying Carroll would be killed otherwise.

US officials did release some female detainees but said the decision was unrelated to the demands.