Hamas, Islamic group swap prisoners in Gaza

GAZA, July 4 (Reuters) Hamas and another militant Islamic group swapped prisoners in the Gaza Strip as mediators negotiated to free an abducted BBC reporter, a spokesman for a group of Palestinian mediators said.

Abu Mujahed, spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, an umbrella militant group in Gaza, said yesterday the ''Army of Islam has released nine students and Hamas has released detained members of the Army of Islam.'' Hamas forces have meanwhile surrounded an area in Gaza City inhabited by the clan where the al Qaeda insipired Army of Islam has the bulk of its supporters, and where Hamas, which now controls Gaza, believes BBC journalist Alan Johnston is being held.

In a statement, Hamas's police called the Executive Force said it would ''continue to besiege the area until British journalist Alan Johnston, who was abducted a few months ago, is freed.'' When asked whether Johnston may soon be freed, Abu Mujahed of the Popular Resistance Committees told Reuters: ''Efforts are under way to conclude all the remaining issues.'' Johnston was seized in Gaza on March 12. He is the longest held of a number of foreign correspondents who have been abducted in Gaza in the past several years.

REUTERS TB RAI0603