LONDON, (Reuters) – Computer programmer Peter Moore, freed this week two and a half years after being taken hostage by militants in Iraq, arrived back in Britain on Friday, the Foreign Office said.

Moore arrived at Brize Norton, a Royal Air Force base in Oxfordshire, southern England, on a flight from Jordan.

The Foreign Office said Moore would be reunited with his family later and he and his family had asked for privacy. Moore was not expected to speak to the media, at least initially.

“We are thrilled to have Peter back safely. We have a lot of catching up to do and would like to have time with Peter on our own. We would now ask the media to give us space and privacy,” his step-parents Fran and Pauline Sweeney said in a statement. Moore was flown from Baghdad to Amman, Jordan, on an aircraft chartered by the Foreign Office. He was then transferred to an aircraft operated by medical assistance company International SOS for the flight to Britain.

Moore and four bodyguards were kidnapped in May 2007 at the height of sectarian bloodshed that killed tens of thousands of people following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. He was released on Wednesday.

The bodies of three of the four bodyguards have been handed over to British authorities, who believe the fourth is also dead.