BAGHDAD, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Six women being held prisoner by coalition forces in Iraq were released Wednesday, as a deadline approached for kidnapped U.S. journalist Jill Carroll.
The 72-hour ransom demand period for Carroll in Iraq reached its midpoint Wednesday. Carroll, 28, was kidnapped at gunpoint in Baghdad Jan. 10, and was not heard from until Tuesday, when the Arabic-language TV network al-Jazeera aired a video of her, although there was no sound played.
Carroll's captors claim they will kill her unless authorities free all female prisoners in Iraq.
A coalition justice ministry spokesman told the BBC six of the eight women being held by the coalition were released because there was insufficient evidence to charge them. U.S. forces refused to confirm the releases, the BBC reported, but said such decisions are unrelated to any other operational activity.
Carroll was working for the Christian Science Monitor when she was captured. Her driver was thrown from the car and her translator was found not far away and shot twice in the head.
The Monitor's editor, Richard Bergenheim, issued a plea for Carroll's release.
"Jill Carroll's colleagues at The Christian Science Monitor and journalists around the world appeal to her captors to release her immediately and without harm. They have seized an innocent person who is a great admirer of the Iraqi people," Bergenheim said in a statement.
