Guardian Reporter Kidnapped in Iraq

Michael Hedges - October 20, 2005

Several sources tie the kidnapping to yesterday’s other main event in Iraq, the start of Saddam Hussein’s trial. Armed men seized the 33 year old Irishman, along with his driver, according to the Guardian’s Middle East editor Brian Whitaker, quoted by AKI. Carroll had been watching the trial’s start on television at the home of an interview subject. The driver was released.

Little additional information about the fate of Guardian (UK) reporter Rory Carroll is known (as of 1100 CET) following his apparent kidnapping in Sadr City, east of Baghdad yesterday.

Looking for victim’s of the Saddam Hussein’s regiem to interview, Carroll contacted the office of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr for leads, according to the Guardian. He was kidnapped on leaving the interview subjects home.

Al-Jazeera reported that earlier in the day (Wednesday) Carroll had reported on the trial for Romanian channel Realitatea TV. According to the BBC he had been interviewed Wednesday morning for RTE radio’s Pat Kenny Show. Carroll was conducting interviews with Iraqis about the trial.

"He is in Iraq as a professional journalist - and he's a very good, straight journalist whose only concern is to report fairly and truthfully about the country," said Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, quoted by the BBC.

Citing a source, China’s Xinhua agency said "the journalist was taken away by unknown gunmen riding a car similar to a police vehicle in Sadr city, a Shi'ite-dominated area of the city, on Wednesday afternoon."

Carroll has been based in Iraq for nine months after assignments in Italy and South Africa. In 1997 he was named Northern Ireland journalist of the year for work with the Irish News in Belfast. His father, Joe Carroll, is the former North American correspondent for the Irish Times.

"Unfortunately, the safety of journalists is still far from being assured in Iraq and there are grounds for suspecting that tension linked to the start of Saddam Hussein's trial are having repercussions on the press," said Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) in a statement yesterday.

ftm Follow Up & Comments

Guardian Reporter Released by Kidnappers - October 22, 2005

After being kidnapped by gunmen in Sadr City and held for 36 hours Guardian (UK) reporter Rory Carroll has been released.

''I had been bracing myself for several grisly outcomes: I could be in this cell for weeks, possibly months," Carroll told AP.

He said that apart from some initial roughness, he was well treated. Four men have been arrested and authorities are searching for others, according to the Guardian.

BBC and Guardian reported on Friday (Oct 21) illuminate reasons suppporters of militant Shia cleric al-Sadr snatched Carroll, intending to trade Carroll for militants held by British forces. There was no explanation why his Shia captors released him so quickly although there had been calls in Iran and Qatar for his release that may have had some influence. Also it was stressed that Carroll was Irish, not British, and even though he worked for a UK newspaper. The Irish government had planned to send a five-person delegation to Iraq Friday to try and negotiate Carroll’s release.

Carroll told Irish public broadcaster RTE that Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi had brokered a release deal. Other reports quoted Sadr City residents saying he had been kidnapped by “criminals” and the local residents radio the house where he’d been kept to free him.