Hours before Rory Carroll was released by his captors last night, Iran had taken the unusual move to demand his release. Lara Marlowe reports from Baghdad
A sheikh close to the Shia Sadr movement also stressed they were not involved.
"Sheikh Moqtada is 100 per cent against kidnapping," Sheikh Ibrahim Abu Zahra, who is close to the Sadr movement, told The Irish Times, referring to Moqtada al-Sadr, whose political organisation and Mehdi army militia control Sadr City.
"If Sheikh Moqtada issues an order to all his offices, and if he is in Sadr City, they will find him," Sheikh Ibrahim had said.
In Iran yesterday prayers were offered for his safe release.
The Iranian government has close ties with leading Shia groups in Iraq and was blamed by a senior British official this month for supplying guns to insurgents in southern Iraq used against British soldiers.
The press section of the Iranian embassy in London had issued a statement deploring the abduction. "Iran has always condemned such acts of violence, which is detrimental to the stability of neighbouring Iraq. We pray and hope for his immediate and safe release."
Iraqi media gave little coverage to Mr Carroll's kidnapping. The government channel broadcast a short piece showing his picture on Wednesday night.
Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a prominent cleric based in Qatar, said the Union of Islamic Scholars, over which he presides, "has always denounced these kidnappings, especially those carried out against journalists". He had "always maintained that such acts are rejected in Islam".