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Iraq’s Sadr movement says it frees U.S. soldier | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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BAGHDAD, (Reuters) – Followers of Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr handed over a captive American soldier to the United Nations alive on Saturday, two senior officials in Sadr’s movement said.

The officials said the soldier, whom they named phonetically as Randy Michael or Randy Michael Hill, had been handed over to the U.N. mission in Iraq. A spokeswoman for the U.N. mission said she was not immediately able to comment.

Al-Hurra Arabic-language satellite television broadcast a video of two Sadrist members of parliament seated next to a man in a U.S. military uniform, at what it said was his release.

If the identity of the captive is confirmed, the incident would appear to contradict the Pentagon, which said in February that it had recovered the remains of the last soldier it believed to be missing in Iraq.