British-led forces rescued three Christian peace activists from
captivity Thursday after finding them tied up in a house in western
Baghdad, two weeks after their American colleague was killed.
The two Canadians and a Briton, seized in November, were alone
in the house. No shots were fired in the operation, which was
swiftly mounted after a suspect detained on Wednesday night
revealed their location, a US general in Baghdad said.
News of the release emerged as a suicide car bomber blew himself
up outside the headquarters of the Iraqi police's major crimes unit
in Baghdad, killing 25 people and wounding 35 in one of the worst
attacks on police in recent months.
A car bomb targeting a police patrol in a busy market in
southwestern Baghdad killed seven people several hours later.
"It's great to be free," Briton Norman Kember, 74, said after
British and other forces freed him and Canadian fellow-hostages Jim
Loney, 41, and Harmeet Sooden, 32.
The tortured body of another activist, American Tom Fox, was found
dumped in the capital two weeks ago.
A British Embassy official said the three men were in "good
shape" in the embassy. Kember was "happy and relaxing."
US military spokesman Major General Rick Lynch said two people
had been detained during an operation on Wednesday night, one of
whom then gave crucial information that led to the raid being
mounted at 8 AM (05:00 GMT).
"It was three hours between when we got the information and when
we released the hostages," Lynch said.
The men were found in a room in a house in west Baghdad, a Sunni
insurgent stronghold. There was no sign of their captors. Lynch
said they appeared to be victims of a "kidnapping cell that has
been robust over the past several months."
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said a multinational force
spearheaded by British troops had executed the operation.
The freed hostages were seized along with their American
colleague Fox while driving in a part of western Baghdad known as a
haven for Sunni Arab rebels on November 26.
They were heading to meet Muslim clerics. Their group,
Chicago-based Christian Peacemaker Teams, specializes in trying to
use Christian principles to defuse conflicts.
(China Daily March 24, 2006)
