New York Journalist Is Released in Iraq
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
BAGHDAD, Iraq – New York journalist Micah Garen, who was kidnapped in Iraq more than a week ago, was released yesterday in the southern city of Nasiriyah.
Mr. Garen spoke to Al Jazeera television, confirming his release. He was interviewed by telephone by the station moments after an aide to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said the American had been released.
Mr. Garen thanked Mr. al-Sadr’s representatives in Nasiriyah and everyone else who worked to secure his release.
Mr. Garen and his Iraqi translator, Amir Doushi, were walking through a market in Nasiriyah on August 13 when two armed men in civilian clothes seized them, police said. Mr. Doushi also was freed, said an aide to Mr. al-Sadr, Sheik Aws al-Khafaji.
Mr. Garen said yesterday he had been taking pictures with a small camera when a misunderstanding happened with people who did not approve, he said without elaborating.
On Thursday, the kidnappers released a video of Mr. Garen surrounded by armed, masked gunmen and threatened to kill him if American troops did not leave Najaf, where they had been battling Mr. al-Sadr’s militia, within 48 hours.
Mr. al-Sadr’s representatives condemned the kidnappings, and Mr. al-Khafaji had been working in recent days to get Messrs. Garen and Doushi released.
“The kidnappers listened to the call that we made during Friday prayers, and they contacted us and we asked them to bring him to [Mr. al-Sadr’s] office and promised that no one would pursue them,” Mr. al-Khafaji said last night. “They released him today, half an hour ago.”
Mr. al-Khafaji said Mr. Garen was in “very good condition.”
Mr. Garen was working on a story about the looting of archaeological sites in Iraq, when he was abducted, said his fiancee, Marie-Helene Carleton.
Mr. Garen worked for Four Corners, identified on its Web site as a “documentary organization working in still photography, video, and print media.”
He has taken photographs as a stringer for the Associated Press and had a story published in the New York Times. His photographs also have appeared in U.S. News & World Report.
Meanwhile, explosions and gunfire shook Najaf’s Old City yesterday in a fierce battle between American forces and Shiite insurgents, as negotiations dragged on for the handover of the shrine that the fighters have used for their stronghold.
American warplanes and helicopters attacked positions in the Old City for the second night with bombs and gunfire, witnesses said. Insurgent leaders said the Imam Ali Shrine compound’s outer walls were damaged in the attacks.
Also, five American troops were killed in separate incidents, the military reported.
In the Anbar province, the heart of the Sunni insurgency, four American Marines with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force were killed in separate incidents, the military announced yesterday. Another Marine was killed Saturday when his Humvee flipped after running into a tank, the military said.
Yesterday’s clashes in Najaf appeared more intense than in recent days as American forces sealed off the Old City.
But Iraqi government officials counseled patience, saying they intended to resolve the crisis without raiding the shrine, one of Shia Islam’s holiest sites.
Senior government officials said last week an Iraqi force was preparing to raid the shrine within hours to expel the rebels loyal to Mr. al-Sadr, but Prime Minister Allawi quickly backed off that threat. Such an operation would anger Shiites across the country and could turn them against the new government as it tries to gain legitimacy and tackle a 16-month-old insurgency.
Sporadic gunfire filled the air in Najaf as roads leading to the shrine were muddied and filled with chunks of concrete ripped from the streets. Black smoke trailed from a building as the clatter of automatic gunfire rang out. In the afternoon a fierce battle between the military and Mr. al-Sadr’s militia broke out when insurgents launched a mortar barrage at American troops, witnesses said. Calm returned to the city after about half an hour.