The US military in Iraq said on Sunday it has detained three Iranian-linked insurgents in central Baghdad believed to be responsible for the kidnapping of five British contractors in May.
The three were apprehended on Saturday during a raid in the Shiite heartland of Sadr City on suspicion of belonging to "Special Groups" tasked with kidnapping and smuggling operations.
"Special Groups" is a US military term for what it says are secret Shiite cells which wage acts of "terrorism" in Iraq with the financial and military backing of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards units.
The US military says the Special Groups have a "close relationship" with the Mahdi Army militia of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who called a six-month halt to his group's militia activities at the end of August.
"The three insurgents captured are believed to be responsible for the kidnapping of five British contractors in Baghdad May 29," a statement from the military said.
There was no news in the statement on the fate of the British management consultant and his four bodyguards who were abducted during a visit to an Iraqi finance ministry office in Baghdad. In June, General David Petraeus, the top commander of US forces in Iraq, said in an interview with the Times newspaper in Britain that the hostages were kidnapped by a group funded, trained and armed by Iran.
He added there had been repeated attempts to free them and identified the kidnappers as a secret cell of the Mahdi Army.