[Iran Press TV Latest] Bargaining on the amount of ransom for the release of two French captives is almost complete between a French team and gunmen in Mogadishu, reports say. The French team has compromised on the ransom amount for one of the captives - a lieutenant colonel - for USD eight million with the al-Shabaab group. The group had previously demanded USD 15 million, a Press TV correspondent reported on Friday. The Frenchman will be released within the next 14 hours, he said. The French agents, whom Paris says were on a mission to train Somali government forces, were seized at gunpoint two weeks ago from their rooms in the Sahafi Hotel in downtown Mogadishu. The two captives have been held at different locations because of fear that French commandos might attack in order to free them. France is known to have attacked pirates in the mountains of the Puntland region in some cases.
