Iraqi insurgents have released two French journalists taken hostage last August.
In Paris, French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin announced the release to parliament Tuesday, a short while after the al-Jazeera television network first reported it.
The journalists, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, were kidnapped in August while heading south from Baghdad on the road to Najaf.
An insurgent group calling itself the Islamic Army of Iraq originally threatened to kill the two unless France lifted a ban on Islamic headscarves in public schools.
But earlier this week, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said he believed the two reporters were still alive and in good health.
The two reporters were kidnapped August 19 by an insurgent group calling itself the Islamic Army of Iraq. Insurgents originally threatened to kill the hostages unless France lifted a ban on Islamic headscarves in public schools.
Some information for this report provided by AFP and Reuters.
