Wednesday, Jul 04, 2007

(Updates with details)

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP)--U.K. reporter Alan Johnston, looking pale and frail, was released Wednesday after nearly four months in captivity, telling The Associated Press that he was "OK."

Johnston, a correspondent for the British Broadcasting Corp., was kidnapped by a shadowy, little-known group from a Gaza City street on March 12 and held far longer than any other foreign reporter in Gaza.

He was taken after his release to the home of deposed Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas in Gaza City's Shati refugee camp. Before entering, Johnston told an Associated Press reporter, "I'm OK, really, I'm OK."

There was no immediate comment from Johnston's captors, the Army of Islam, after his release.

Hamas had demanded Johnston's freedom since it violently seized control of Gaza last month, in an apparent bid to curry favor with the West.

On Tuesday, Hamas gunmen took positions around the Army of Islam's stronghold, stepping up the pressure to secure his release.

Members of Hamas' 6,000-person militia moved onto rooftops of high-rise buildings and deployed gunmen in streets of the Gaza City neighborhood inhabited by the Doghmush clan, the large, heavily armed family that leads the Army of Islam.

"The clocks have begun ticking toward the release of Alan Johnston," said Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad. "The operation of the interior ministry Executive Forces has started, and they are tightening the siege on the people involved in his kidnap."

Late Tuesday, the Doghmush clan released nine students loyal to Hamas that they kidnapped earlier in the week. Hamas officials and mediators said the release was meant to pave the way for Johnston's release.

Then four Army of Islam members were freed by Hamas, said Abu Mujahid from the Popular Resistance Committees, the militant group handling the negotiations. The four included an Army of Islam spokesman whose arrest Monday was seen as an effort to gain a potentially valuable bargaining chip.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum accused Johnston's captors of smearing the Palestinian people's reputation and of seeking "to prove to the world that we are a group of militias that fight each other to gain personal ends."

The Army of Islam, whose formerly close relations with Hamas have soured, had demanded that the U.K. first release a radical Islamic cleric with ties to al-Qaida. It also had threatened to kill Johnston if Hamas tried to free him by force.

Last week, the Army of Islam posted a video message from Johnston on a militant Web site in which he appeared to be wearing an explosives belt that he said his captors would detonate if there were an attempt to free him.

The same group was involved in the capture of Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who was seized more than a year ago in a raid on an Israeli army post near Gaza.

It is unclear what the fate of the shadowy group will be after Johnston's release. The foreign reporter was considered the group's insurance that Hamas would not harm it, or the large Doghmush clan.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 03, 2007 21:36 ET (01:36 GMT)