Prisoner exchanges

Things are no less confusing in Iraq today than they have been over the last six years.

A week ago, Mr. Askari said in an interview that Asa’ib al-Haq was willing to “join the political process and to abandon their armed activities,” but that the group could not do so unless its leader, Qais al-Khazali, was released.

Mr. Askari said the release of the British hostages had been part of the negotiations.

“This is a very sensitive topic because you know the position that the Iraqi government, the U.S. and British governments, and all the governments do not accept the idea of exchanging hostages for prisoners,” he said. “So we put it in another format, and we told them that if they want to participate in the political process they cannot do so while they are holding hostages. And we mentioned to the American side that they cannot join in the political process and release their hostages while their leaders are behind bars or imprisoned.”

A senior member of Mr. Sadr’s movement, who would only speak on the condition of anonymity, sketched out how the exchange was expected to take place: a British hostage would be freed within two days of Mr. Khazali’s release, he said, adding that that there might also be an agreement to swap one detained member of Asa’ib al-Haq member for each kidnapped Briton.

Previous efforts to get all parties to agree to a deal failed, and American officials said Asa’ib al-Haq had broken an earlier cease-fire.

The Khazali brothers were captured by the Americans in Basra on March 20, 2007. Qais al-Khazali was accused of being one of the two masterminds of the Karbala killings of the five American soldiers two months earlier.