BAGHDAD, Sept 2 (AFP) - A delegation of French Muslim leaders visiting Iraq said Thursday it was confident that two French journalists held by Islamic extremists would be freed.
"We leave with confidence and full of hope. The kidnappers wish to free them but they do not know how to do it because they are afraid about the Americans. This is the main obstacle to freeing them," delegation chief Abdullah Zekhri told AFP at the end of a visit to Baghdad.
The two reporters have been held since August 20 by a group calling itself the Islamic Army of Iraq which is demanding that France rescind a law banning the Islamic headscarf in state schools which came into force Thursday.
But a late Tuesday deadline passed with no word on the fate of Le Figaro reporter Georges Malbrunot and Radio France correspondent Christian Chesnot, both men with long experience in the region.
The delegation from the French Council for the Muslim Faith (CFCM) had flown to Baghdad from Amman where they held talks with French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier.