A British journalist taken hostage in Iraq says his captors staged terrifying mock executions, putting unloaded guns to his blindfolded head and pulling the trigger.
James Brandon, who was snatched from his hotel in Basra on Thursday, also told how he had managed to escape from his kidnappers -- only to be seized again. He was freed on Friday nursing a black eye and bruises.
Recounting the 20-hour ordeal in a front-page article for the Sunday Telegraph newspaper for which he worked, Brandon said he was snatched by gunmen.
Brandon, 23, was pistol-whipped, then driven around Basra for 10 minutes before the kidnappers carried out the first in a series of mock executions.
"All I could feel was the cold steel of the muzzle of one my abductors' pistols being pressed to my temple," he wrote.
He said he was dumped blindfolded in a kitchen with his hands and feet tied. However, he worked off the loose blindfold, cut himself free using a knife he found and in "an Indiana Jones moment" fled the house after threatening a woman guarding him.
However, his freedom was shortlived as his kidnappers soon recaptured him at a government building where he had fled.
Brandon's kidnapping had attracted the attention of Iraq's radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who ordered the Briton's release.
Hours later, sporting a badly-swollen eye and other bruises from beatings, he was handed over to Sadr's Basra office.
Brandon said he did not know who his kidnappers were but assumed they were Sadr supporters.
Recovering in Kuwait, Brandon said he wanted to return to Iraq.
"I have no desire to be the story again," he added.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese