Ammon News - LONDON - British hostage Peter Moore has been released alive from captivity in Iraq, british Foreign Secretary David Miliband has confirmed.

The 36 year old IT consultant from Lincoln was seized in Baghdad in May 2007, but Mr Miliband said he was in good health and delighted to be free.

The Moore family felt deep relief after two-and-a-half years of "misery, fear and uncertainty", the foreign secretary added.



Below is the transcript of British Foreign Secretary's statement:


David Miliband: I have an important statement to make about the British hostages in Iraq. I'm pleased to confirm that Peter Moore, one of the five men taken hostage in Baghdad in May 2007, has been released today.

Peter was set free by his captors this morning in Baghdad and delivered to the Iraqi authorities. He's now in the care of the British Embassy in Baghdad. I've spoken to our Acting Ambassador this morning to go through arrangements and I've just had a very moving conversation with Peter himself.

Peter is in good health, despite many months of captivity. He's undergoing careful medical checks and he's going to be reunited with his family as soon as possible back in the UK. He's obviously, to put it mildly, absolutely delighted at his release.

We are in close touch with Peter's family. His family and friends are also deeply relieved that he has been released, that he has come through what has been an unspeakable two and a half years of misery, fear and uncertainty and that fear and uncertainty has of course been shared with his close family and friends as well.

I think it's also important that I say that I'm very conscious today that the joy and relief that will be felt by Peter's family will be mirrored by the continuing anguish of the family of Alan McMenemy, the last of the five men taken hostage.

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. My thoughts today are also with the families of Jason Swindlehurst, Jason Creswell and Alec MacLachlan who did not survive this hostage taking and whose bodies were repatriated to the UK earlier this year.

For Peter's family the pain and the anguish is over; for the other families it endures. I hope that the media will continue to the impressive restraint and sensitivity in reporting that has marked this case. The families of all the hostages and above all Peter himself need time and space to come to terms with his release.

Hostage taking is never justified. It is a heinous crime. Iraqis are building slowly but steadily a political consensus about the future of their country and abandoning the violence that has blighted its recent past.

For many months now the Government of Iraq has been taking forward a process of national reconciliation with armed groups prepared to renounce violence. That process of reconciliation has made possible Peter Moore's release today. I hope it will lead also to the end of the scourge of hostage taking and violence in that country.

I thank all those, including in the Iraqi Government, working for peace and progress in Iraq for what they have done to secure Peter Moore's release and I ask them to redouble their efforts to secure clarity on the fate of Alan McMenemy.