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Marines Capture Carroll Kidnappers

The United States Marine Corps has captured four Iraqi men suspected of participating in the abduction of an American journalist, Jill Carroll, in Baghdad in January 2006. Major-General William B. Caldwell IV told reporters that the four men were arrested in the Sunni Arab-dominated region west of Baghdad. He declined to reveal the names o the suspects for reasons of security. On Wednesday though, an American spokesman referred reporters to an article about the captures of the men posted on a military website. It is known as the official Web site for the multinational force in Iraq, or MNFI.

Carroll told the Marines about the location of the houses where she was held captive. The US Marines accordingly searched four houses where military officials now believe she was held captive during her three-month ordeal. One of the four Iraqi suspects was a member of the Mujahedeen Shura Council, a major group for several Sunni insurgent groups linked to Al Qaeda. The series of home searches began with basic detective work by a young Marine lieutenant from the Third Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, earlier this year.

The military web site says that three of the four were arrested by Marines on May 19, during an investigation of a home they suspected of having been a safe house where Carroll was kept. Whereas the fourth man was arrested later. At the time of her kidnapping on Jan 7, Carroll was a freelance reporter for The Christian Science Monitor. She traveled with regard to an interview with a Sunni Arab politician in western Baghdad. Released on March 30, Carroll was apparently held in several houses in the Anbar Province and perhaps one in Baghdad.