Hostage takers reportedly free Iraq's PM's cousin

Kidnappers have reportedly freed the cousin of Iraqi interim Prime Minister Mr Iyad Allawi.

Kidnappers have reportedly freed the cousin of Iraqi interim Prime Minister Mr Iyad Allawi.

The claim was made by Arab satellite television Al Arabiya, quoting its correspondent, but gave no further details.

An Iraqi government spokesman in Baghdad said he could not confirm that Mr Ghazi Allawi had been freed.

A previously unknown Islamist group seized the prime minister's 75-year-old first cousin along with his wife and their daughter-in-law in Baghdad on November 9th.

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Arab satellite televisions said last Sunday the women had been released.

The group had threatened to kill the three unless Iraq's government called off a US-led assault on the rebel-held city of Fallujah and freed prisoners. The government said it would not be influenced by the abductions, which took place a day after Mr Allawi ordered a full-scale assault on Fallujah, which his government and the US military said had become a haven for foreign Islamist fighters.

Scores of Iraqis and foreigners have been seized by Islamic militant groups and criminal gangs.

Some have been freed while others have been killed, several by beheading.