by Nawfal Hashim
BASRA, Iraq, Aug 13 (AFP) - A kidnapped British journalist was released in Iraq less than 24 hours after he was abducted at gunpoint from a hotel, after aides of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr apparently came to his rescue.
Freelance Sunday Telegraph reporter James Brandon, 23, was paraded at Sadr`s offices in the southern city of Basra, where representatives of the militia leader said he had been freed, before they handed him over to Iraqi police.
Wearing a pink shirt and dark trousers, a timid and bruised Brandon who had been threatened with death by his kidnappers held an impromptu press conference.
He told reporters he was treated harshly at first but that changed, he believed, because his captors heard the appeal from Sadr`s office for his release.
Masked men snatched Brandon, bleeding from his hotel room late Thursday, and had reportedly demanded that US forces withdraw from the holy city of Najaf, where Sadr`s private Mehdi Army has been locked in heavy fighting.
Brandon told AFP that eight men had stormed his hotel room and beat him with the butts of their rifles before taking him.
He complained his whole body was still sore from the ordeal and his leg was especially painful.
After talking to reporters he was taken to the local British consulate by Basra police chief Brigadier General Mohammed Kadhim al-Ali.
A top aide to the cleric said earlier he had lodged a "formal" request for Brandon`s immediate release.
In Baghdad, Sadr spokesman Sayed Hazem al-Araji told AFP it was "unlikely" the kidnappers were from the Mehdi Army.
"But if they are then they have disobeyed Sayed (honorific) Moqtada`s orders who has specifically condemned the kidnapping of journalists."
An employee at Al-Diyafa hotel where Brandon had been staying had said about 20 masked gunmen, some wearing police uniform, stormed the building at about 11:00 pm (1900 GMT) Thursday and demanded that the receptionist show them the guest registration book.
"One of them then said, `How dare you have foreigners in your hotel?` and then they stormed upstairs," the employee said, requesting anonymity.
"We then heard two shots and minutes later they were dragging the British journalist down and he was bleeding."
The Baghdad bureau of London-based news agency Reuters had earlier obtained a video showing the journalist shirtless with a white bandage around his head.
"US forces must pull out of Najaf in 24 hours or we will kill the Briton," warned a hooded man on the tape, according to Reuters.
"I`m a journalist. I just write about what`s happening in Iraq," Brandon reportedly said on the clip.
The journalist was abducted just hours after a shadowy Shiite group calling itself Abu al-Abbas warned it would kill all those cooperating with British troops, in apparent retaliation for US-led military operations in Najaf.
However, it was not clear whether the group had any links to Sadr`s Mehdi Army or whether it was involved in Brandon`s kidnapping.
An AFP correspondent said he had met Brandon on Wednesday afternoon shortly after he arrived from Baghdad. "He told me he wanted to work on the Mehdi Army and oil topics and asked for my help," said Nawfal Hashim.
The Sunday Telegraph, confirming that Brandon was in Basra filing materials for this week`s edition "amongst other projects," had expressed serious concern over his fate.
Fellow British freelancer, Colin Freeman, who worked in the same Baghdad hotel, said Brandon had been in Iraq for several months and was well used to the risks.
"He had lived in Iraq for the best part of a year without, as far as I can tell, any mishaps, and had previously lived in Yemen, which is obviously not a particularly safe place for Westerners to live," he said.