Baghdad - Heavy fighting broke out Thursday in the southern
Iraqi city of Basra between the Iraqi army and gunmen believed to be
from a Shiite cult, leaving two soldiers injured, while negotiations
were continuing seeking to free an abducted CBS journalist after the
release of his interpreter overnight.
Clashes erupted between Iraqi troops and suspected members of the
Ahmed al-Yamani group in the Jenina district in Basra in the wake of
a bomb explosion, police sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
A deadly confrontation in January between Iraqi security forces
and the followers of the mysterious Shiite cult of Ahmed al-Yamani,
who believe in the return of a hidden imam, left at least 40 people
dead and 60 injured. Some 300 people were also arrested.
Also in Basra, 550 kilometres south of Baghdad, Emad Khudair, an
Iraqi interpreter working for US television network CBS was released
Wednesday night after three days in captivity and handed over to a
judge from the Iraqi federal court.
'I was assigned by the court to oversee the handover of the Iraqi
interpreter only then give him over to the police,' judge Majid al-
Abadi, said.
The judge declined to name the abductors.
Basra police chief Abdel Jalil Khalaf said negotiations were
continuing to secure the release of the CBS British journalist, who
had been abducted with Kudair last Sunday evening.
Police were not involved in the negotiations, which were expected
to result in the release of the journalist within hours, Khalaf said.
'Kudair's family asked us not to have him on television out of
fear for his life and to ensure that negotiations for the release of
the British journalist are not affected,' Khalaf said.
The Office of the Martyr al-Sadr of the Shiite radical cleric
Moqtada al-Sadr was involved in the negotiations with the unknown
abductors.
The chief of the office in Basra, Harith al-Azari, announced the
release of the interpreter, saying he was now safe in the Qasr al-
Sultan hotel, where he and the British journalist, were believed to
have been abducted.
British and Iraqi troops have been carrying out search operations
on the outskirts of Basra since Monday.
USA
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