BAGHDAD, Iraq - Without firing a shot, U.S. and British forces stormed a
house Thursday and freed three Christian peace activists who were bound but
unguarded, ending a four-month hostage ordeal that saw an American in the group
killed and dumped along a railroad track.
Christian Peacemaker
Teams' co-director Carol Rose stands in front of a poster showing members
of the Chicago-based group: James Loney,top left, Tom Fox, Harmeet Singh
Sooden, bottom left, and Norman Kember, bottom right, during a news
conference Thursday, March 23, 2006, in Chicago.
[AP] |
The U.S. ambassador and the top American military spokesman held out hope the
operation on the outskirts of Baghdad could lead to a break in the captivity of
American reporter Jill Carroll, a freelance writer for The Christian Science
Monitor who was abducted Jan. 7.
The military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, said the 8 a.m. rescue of the
Briton and two Canadians from a "kidnapping cell" was based on information
divulged by a man during interrogation only three hours earlier. The man was
captured by U.S. forces on Wednesday night.
A senior Iraqi military officer told The Associated Press, however, that the
operation had been under way for two days in the Abu Ghraib suburb west of
Baghdad, site of the notorious prison. The officer, who spoke on condition of
anonymity because of the sensitivity of his position, said U.S. and British
forces refused to give him other details.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canadian forces also took part in
the rescue operation, although their precise role was unclear.
But the joyful news was tempered by violence that raged throughout Iraq as
the day wore on. Fifty-eight people were killed in execution-style slayings,
bombings and gun battles. For the third straight day, Sunni insurgents hit a
major police and jail facility ¡ª this time with a suicide car bombing that
killed 25 in central Baghdad.
Lynch claimed a reinforced U.S. and Iraqi security presence in the capital
had prevented car bombings on five recent consecutive days, but acknowledged
that attacks "surged today."
No kidnappers were present when the troops broke into the house where the
peace activists were discovered with their hands tied.
"They were bound, they were together, there were no kidnappers in the areas,"
Lynch told a news briefing.
The freed men were Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32,
and Briton Norman Kember, 74. The men ¡ª members of the Chicago-based Christian
Peacemaker Teams ¡ª were kidnapped Nov. 26 along with an American colleague, Tom
Fox, 54.
Fox's body was found this month, shot and dumped in western Baghdad.