World

Raid Frees 3 Western Hostages In Iraq

March 23, 2006 / 6:27 AM EST / CBS/AP

U.S. and Iraqi forces freed one British and two Canadian hostages early Thursday in a military operation, ending a four-month hostage drama in which an American among the group was shot to death and dumped on a Baghdad street.

The Iraqi Interior Ministry said it is believed the captives were freed in a town north of Baghdad, although there are conflicting reports on the location of the operation.

British officials in Baghdad said those freed were Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32; and Briton Norman Kember, 74. The men - members of a Chicago-based Christian peace activist group - were kidnapped on Nov. 26 along with their American colleague, Tom Fox, 54, whose body was found earlier this month.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in London that he was "delighted that now we have a happy ending in this terrible ordeal." He said he had spoken to Kember's wife Pat, who was "absolutely delighted, elated at this news."

Straw said Kember is in "reasonable condition" in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. The two Canadians required hospital treatment, he said, but gave no further details.

He also gave few details of the operation, saying only that it followed "weeks and weeks" of planning.

In other recent developments:

U.S. and Iraqi forces captured 50 insurgents Wednesday during a two-hour gun battle at a police station south of Baghdad, a day after 100 masked gunmen stormed a jail in Madain, near the Iranian border, freeing over 30 prisoners, most of them fellow insurgents. Four police officers were killed, and five others were wounded, in the firefight between insurgents and the combined forces of U.S. troops and Iraqi police.

In Baghdad Wednesday, roadside bombs that targeted police patrols wounded at least six policemen, including four who work as guards at the education ministry. Also in Baghdad a truck carrying Shiite Muslim pilgrims was attacked on its way back from a religious commemoration in the city of Karbala. One person was killed and ten others were wounded.

An Iraqi camerman working for CBS News when he was wounded and detained by the U.S. military will be tried next month, CBS officials said Wednesday. Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein's trial was scheduled to begin Wednesday, but an Iraqi judge postponed the proceedings until April 5, said Larry Doyle, the CBS bureau chief in Baghdad. Charges against Hussein have not been made public.

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday that he underestimated the extent of the reluctance of the Iraqi people to accept a unified government. "I think that I certainly did not understand the depth of fear that was generated by the decades of Saddam's rule," said Gen. Pace in an interview en route to Saudi Arabia. "I think a lot of Iraqis have been in the wait and see mode longer than I thought they would."

Transcripts from the 1990s show Saddam Hussein was frustrated that no one believed Iraq had given up banned weapons. At one meeting with top aides in 1996, Saddam wondered if U.N. inspectors would "roam Iraq for 50 years." At one point, a frustrated Saddam says, "We don't have anything hidden!" The transcripts, recently released by the U.S., are translations from audio and videotapes of top-level Iraqi meetings held from 1991 to 1997.

Commenting on Thursday's military operation to free the three Western hostages, Iraqi police Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi said it is believed the operation took place in Mishahda, 20 miles north of Baghdad.

The kidnapped men were shown as prisoners in several videos, the most recent a silent clip dated Feb. 28 in which Loney, Kember and Sooden appeared without Fox. Fox's body was found March 10 near a west Baghdad railway line with gunshot wounds to his head and chest.

The previously unknown Swords of Righteousness Brigades claimed responsibility for kidnapping the men.

Other Americans taken hostage in Iraq and killed in addition to Fox were Ronald Schulz, 40, an industrial electrician from Anchorage, Alaska; Jack Hensley, 48, a civil engineer from Marietta, Georgia.; Eugene "Jack" Armstrong, 52, formerly of Hillsdale, Michigan.; and Nicholas Berg, 26, a businessman from West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Still missing is Jill Carroll, a freelance writer for The Christian Science Monitor who was kidnapped Jan. 7 in Baghdad. She has appeared in three videotapes delivered by her kidnappers to Arab satellite television stations.

The last hostage to be freed in a military operation was Douglas Wood, an Australian rescued in west Baghdad by U.S. and Iraqi forces on June 15 after 47 days in captivity.