Kidnap of five British hostages reportedly led by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard

Iran organised the kidnapping in Iraq of freed British hostage Peter Moore it has been claimed. The Guardian reported that Moore and his four bodyguards were taken to a camp inside Iran within a day of their kidnapping.

The paper quoted a former member of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard as saying: “It was an Iranian kidnap, led by the Revolutionary Guard, carried out by the al-Quds brigade.

“My contact works for al-Quds. He took part in the planning of the kidnap and he watched the kidnapping as it was taking place. He told me that they spent two days at the Qasser Shiereen camp. They then took them deep inside Iran.”

Moore was freed on Wednesday morning after two-and-a-half years in captivity and spent the night at the British Embassy in Baghdad, where he is receiving medical attention.

One of the kidnappers has told the Guardian that three of Moore’s bodyguards – Jason Creswell, Jason Swindlehurst and Alec Maclachlan – were killed after the British government refused to take ransom demands seriously. The remaining bodyguard, Alan McMenemy, is believed to be dead and the UK government has demanded the release of his body.

The United States’ former commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, told the BBC that he was “absolutely certain” Mr Moore and the other hostages were held in Iran for part of their period in captivity.

But the Foreign Office said: “We have no evidence that the British hostages, including Peter Moore, were held in Iran. We are not in a position to say with any certainty where they were held during each and every single day of their two-and-a-half years in captivity.”

The Foreign Office was unable to say when Moore would fly back to Britain.