Kidnapped reporter freed in Iraq

Micah Garen, who was seized along with his interpreter on 13 August in Nasiriya, told an Arabic TV channel he had been taking photos at the time.

"There was a misunderstanding," he said from the mainly Shia southern city.

A search is still on for two French reporters and an Italian who went missing on Thursday.

Mr Garen and his interpreter, Amir Doushi, were taken to the office of radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr in Nasiriya ahead of being handed over to Iraqi government officials.

The journalist, who is the founder of US company Four Corners Media, told al-Jazeera TV he was "very thankful" to the cleric and his aides for helping to secure his release.

He said he had been captured at a city market where he had been taking pictures with a small camera. "I think that they did not like it when I was taking some photos," he said.

"There were many people in the marketplace. I cannot tell who they are... I think they considered me to be a suspicious person and, therefore, there was a misunderstanding."

A Sadr spokesman in the city, Aws al-Khafaji, told al-Jazeera that Mr Garen's abductors - whom he only described as "groups" - had approached his office after realising that the journalist had worked to "uncover the truth about events in Iraq, especially in Nasiriya".