Was there a deal to release the British hostages?

Charles Krauthammer thinks there was, and suspects it was the Americans who made it happen.

If this turns out to be true, it wouldn't surprise me. These hostages were citizens of the European Union, but the EU showed no interest in protecting them, they were also acting under the mandate of the U.N., but the U.N. showed no interest in protecting them, so it may well have been left to the Americans to sort the mess out. Will the Americans get any credit for this? Of course not. As Mark Steyn once put it...

For everyone but America the free world is mostly a free ride.