BAGHDAD, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- Iraq's interior minister is optimistic that kidnapped U.S. reporter Jill Carroll is alive and unharmed.
Carroll, who is freelancing for the Christian Science Monitor, was abducted Jan. 7 in Baghdad. Her kidnappers, a group that uses the name Brigades of Vengeance, had said she would be killed Feb. 26 -- Sunday -- unless all Iraqi women in U.S. custody were released.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told CNN that he had discussed the case with Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr.
"He said that based on the information that he has, that she is alive and that they have information with regard to where she might be held," the ambassador said.
Carroll's Iraqi translator was killed during the kidnapping while her driver escaped unharmed. In a video shown Feb. 9 on a Kuwaiti television station, Carroll urged the U.S. government to meet her kidnappers' demands.
