Former US soldier released by militia

IRAQ: Wearing a United States Army uniform and flanked by Iraqi parliamentarians, an American announced yesterday that he was being released from more than nine months of imprisonment by a Shi’ite militia that for years targeted US troops.

The man did not identify himself.

However, at a bizarre press conference outside the Green Zone in Baghdad, MPS showed Us-issued military and contractor ID cards that identified him as Randy Michael Hultz.

He spoke calmly but gave scant details of what he described as a ‘‘kidnapping’’.

‘‘I was taken inside Baghdad and kept in and around different locations within city,’’ he said.

The kidnappers, he said, were from the Promised Day Brigade.

It is branch of the Mahdi Army, a militia that is controlled by the anti-american cleric Muqtada alSadr.

‘‘It was

explained to me deputy speaker of Iraq’s parliament, and Maha al-douri.

UN spokeswoman Radhia Achouri confirmed the man was at the mission’s compound while the US Embassy in Baghdad tried to verify his identity.

He was later transferred to the embassy, spokesman Michael Mcclellan said.

Hundreds of thousands of contractors, both American and other nationalities, worked alongside American troops and in other support roles throughout the nineyear war.

Senior Sadrist official Abdul Hadi al-mutairi said the man was released without any negotiation ‘‘as a goodwill initiative toward the American society and to [his] family’’.

He said the man, whom he believed was married and had two sons, was treated well during his nine-month imprisonment, even though he had participated in the battles in Sadr City and in Najaf.

The man said he was grateful for his release.

the

that this [release] is a gift to me, my family and to the American people,’’ he said.

He said he was deployed to Iraq early in the war as an active-duty soldier but left the military after 15 months.

At that point, he worked in a ‘‘civilian capacity’’ until his kid- napping on June 18, 2011. He did not wear any patches on his uniform that would identify his rank or his unit.

He was taken into the Green Zone and turned over to the United Nations mission in Iraq after the press conference by Sadrist MPS Qusay al-suhail, the

Photo: REUTERS Gift of freedom: A former American soldier identified as Randy Michael Hultz, right, appears on television in Baghdad with Iraq Parliament deputy speaker Qusay al-suhail. Hultz was apparently imprisoned by a Shi’ite group for nine months.