2 Hostages Alive in Iraq Video

Two French journalists held hostage in Iraq since August said in a video that they were in good health and hoped to be freed “once investigations and security problems are finalized,” London’s Sunday Times said.

The newspaper reported it had obtained a CD-ROM containing the video and believed it was made this month.

It said the recording showed Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot apparently in good spirits more than three months after their capture by a group calling itself the Islamic Army of Iraq.

“The behavior of the Islamic Army has been very good. There is no violence involved,” Chesnot was quoted as saying in Arabic. “We eat three times a day and we get lots of tea and everything is available.”

Chesnot said they were being held while the Islamic Army investigated their identities. He also said the security situation in Iraq was affecting their release.

“The situation is very difficult. There is an American siege as well as American patrols and once the investigations and security problems are finalized we hope to be released,” the paper quoted Chesnot as saying.

Marines found the journalists’ driver this month alive in Fallouja, 35 miles west of Baghdad.

The kidnapping of Chesnot, who works for Radio France International, and Malbrunot, of Le Figaro, stunned France, which had opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.