LONDON--A Briton freed this week after being kidnapped in Iraq in 2007 is expected to fly home Friday for a reunion with his family, officials said, as controversy over his ordeal refused to die down.

Peter Moore, a computer expert, was released unharmed Wednesday after two-and-a-half years' captivity during which all four of his bodyguards, also Britons, are thought to have been killed.

"It is likely that Peter Moore will return home today," a spokeswoman for the Foreign Office in London said. No further details were issued and it was believed his family had requested privacy.

Moore, 36, is reportedly going to be sent to a safe house on his return for assessments by doctors and psychiatrists and help in readjusting to normal life.

Relatives of Moore and of the guards captured with him have meanwhile spoken of their anger at the British government's handling of the matter.

The bodies of three bodyguards -- Alec MacLachlan, 30, Jason Swindlehurst, 38, and Jason Creswell, 39 -- were handed over to British officials last year. A fourth, Alan McMenemy, 34, is also believed to be dead.

McMenemy's father Dennis accused the Foreign Office of "deceit, lies and cover-up" while Moore's mother Avril Sweeney said the government had "never told the truth", the Guardian reported.

The paper said Thursday that Iran's Revolutionary Guard led the kidnap operation and took the five to Iran within a day of their abduction.

General David Petraeus, the US regional military commander, reiterated to reporters in Baghdad Friday that Moore spent "at the very least" part of his time in captivity in Iran.

"That is based on an intelligence assessment and obviously I've not had a chance to hear it, certainly not to talk to him, but nor to hear anything that he has said," Petraeus said.

Some commentators said a deal may have been done to free Moore after Qais al-Khazali, leader of the group which captured the Britons from a government building in Baghdad, was recently transferred from US to Iraqi custody.

Moore's father Graeme Moore said he believed this is what had happened.

"About four weeks ago, I got a tip that there had been secret meetings between the kidnappers and the Americans regarding al-Khazali," he said, without revealing his source.

"I couldn't find out any more progress of the meetings as it was all being kept hush-hush. The whole thing was kept very secret to stop the Foreign Office messing it up.

"I was told they were being kept out of the loop and knew nothing about it until the kidnappers handed Peter over to the Iraqi authorities."

But the Foreign Office denied any deal was done.

"The United States transferred Qais al-Khazali to government of Iraq custody under the two countries' status of forces agreement," it said in a statement.

"The UK continues to be kept informed of this process through its contacts with the United States and the government of Iraq.

"Separately, the government of Iraq is carrying out a process of reconciliation with groups willing to renounce violence and enter the political mainstream.

"Since holding hostages is incompatible with reconciliation, we judge that progress on the wider reconciliation effort will benefit hostages held in Iraq. There has been no prisoner exchange deal in the case of Peter Moore."

Britain and Iran have also played down reports of a link to Iran.