British Hostage Held More Than 2 Years in Iraq Is Freed

A British computer expert held hostage in Iraq for more than two-and-a-half years has been freed.Miliband said he had just had a "very moving" conversation with Peter Moore, 36, who is now at the British Embassy in Baghdad.

Moore is in "good health," he said, but is undergoing medical checks.

He said the former hostage was "to put it mildly absolutely delighted" at his release and would be reunited with his family "as soon as possible."

Moore was seized along with his four British bodyguards at the finance ministry in Baghdad on May 29, 2007.

Fears for his safety grew after the bodies of three of the guards — Alec MacLachlan, Jason Swindlehurst and Jason Creswell — were handed over to U.K. authorities.

The family of Alan McMenemy, the fourth guard, was told by the Foreign Office in July he was "very likely" to have died.

Miliband appealed for his kidnappers to release his body.

He said: "We have believed for some time that he has been killed, and his family have been told our view of his likely fate.

"I call today again in the strongest terms for the hostage-takers to return Alan's body as soon as possible."

He denied any direct deal had been done with the kidnappers 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 stressed.

Gordon Brown said he was "hugely relieved" that Moore had been freed.

Moore's father Graeme, 60, from Wigston, Leicestershire, said he was "over the moon" at the news.

"We are so relieved and we just want to get him home, back now to his family and friends," he said. "I'm breaking down, I'm just so overjoyed for the lad. It's been such a long haul.

"I know that there have been one or two people working in the background to get Peter released.

"Peter is a very resilient lad and he always has been because of his background... but I don't know how close he was to those others who have been shot."

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