THE group of al-Qaeda frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed today it had kidnapped three relatives of Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and explained why it decided to release them, an Internet statement said. "Your brothers in the Al-Qaeda Group in the Land of Two Rivers (Iraq) freed Ghazi Allawi with his family because it proved they are not implicated in the apostate government of Allawi," said the statement. It was signed by the group's "information department". Ghazi Allawi, 75, who had been taken hostage on November 10, was released yesterday in Baghdad. He had been captured with his wife and their pregnant daughter-in-law from their house in the capital. The following day, a previously unknown Islamist group claimed responsibility and threatened to behead them within 48 hours unless Mr Allawi halted a major offensive on the rebel enclave of Fallujah and released all prisoners held in Iraq. The two women were released on November 15.