diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/markdownml.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/markdownml.py
index 116561f355..c179378049 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/markdownml.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/markdownml.py
@@ -35,11 +35,9 @@ class MarkdownMLizer(object):
             html = unicode(etree.tostring(item.data, encoding=unicode))
             
             if not self.opts.keep_links:
-                html = re.sub(r'<\s*a[^>]*>', '', html)
-                html = re.sub(r'<\s*/\s*a\s*>', '', html)
+                html = re.sub(r'<\s*/*\s*a[^>]*>', '', html)
             if not self.opts.keep_image_references:
-                html = re.sub(r'<\s*img[^>]*>', '', html)
-                html = re.sub(r'<\s*img\s*>', '', html)
+                html = re.sub(r'<\s*img[^>]*>', '', html)\
             
             text = html2text(html)
         
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/textileml.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/textileml.py
index 94834d8e79..d7e11695c5 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/textileml.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/textileml.py
@@ -36,11 +36,9 @@ class TextileMLizer(object):
             html = unicode(etree.tostring(item.data.find(XHTML('body')), encoding=unicode))
 
             if not self.opts.keep_links:
-                html = re.sub(r'<\s*a[^>]*>', '', html)
-                html = re.sub(r'<\s*/\s*a\s*>', '', html)
+                html = re.sub(r'<\s*/*\s*a[^>]*>', '', html)
             if not self.opts.keep_image_references:
                 html = re.sub(r'<\s*img[^>]*>', '', html)
-                html = re.sub(r'<\s*img\s*>', '', html)
 
             text = html2textile(html)