Gaza
The Palestinian Islamist party Hamas has scored a public relations victory with the release of a kidnapped BBC reporter. Alan Johnston spent four months in the custody of the Army of Islam, a Palestinian fringe group that repeatedly threatened to kill him. When Hamas defeated the forces of rival party Fatah last month and took control of the entire Gaza Strip, one of its first moves was to find Johnston. Hamas arrested Army of Islam leader Qattab al-Maqdesy, a Palestinian who trained with al Qaida in Afghanistan, and forced the kidnappers to release their hostage. After a tearful reunion last week with his parents and sister, Johnston promised his colleagues he would try to avoid getting snatched again. “Just imagine the embarrassment,” he said.
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