Intelligence

Special forces free Iraq hostages, including Briton

Norman Kember freed - World - Times Online

By Philippe Naughton

Norman Kember, the 74-year-old peace campaigner, is expected to be flown home to Britain tomorrow night after being released from 118 days in captivity in Baghdad.

British and US special forces released Mr Kember and two Canadian activists without firing a shot today, ending a four-month ordeal during which hopes for his freedom rose, and then faded when a fellow hostage, American Tom Fox, was murdered.

The three Christian campaigners were freed in an SAS-led raid on a house in western Baghdad early this morning. Their captors had already fled.

Mr Kember, a retired professor, is in good health and is reported to have told staff at the British Embassy in Baghdad: "It's great to be free. I'm looking forward to getting back to the UK."

A life-long pacifist, Mr Kember was kidnapped with Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, and Mr Fox, a 54-year-old American, in a lawless district of west Baghdad on November 26. All four were volunteers with the Chicago-based Christian Peacemaker Teams.

In the weeks that followed, friends and family of the hostages held vigils, but diplomatic attempts to win their release came to nothing. Videos made by their captors were broadcast, but were followed by ominous silences.

On March 9, the stalemate was broken when Mr Fox's body was found handcuffed on a rubbish dump in the Iraqi capital and fears grew that the kidnappers, a group unknown before the hostages were seized, might be preparing to kill the other three.

Today's rescue operation was led by British forces and came after weeks of planning, according to British sources. But a US military spokesman, Major-General Rick Lynch, said the information that led to the assault came from one of two men detained by American forces late last night.

At 8am (0500GMT) the raid was launched and all three hostages were found tied up in the same room of the house, he said. Operations continue to track down the kidnappers.

"They were bound, they were together. There were no kidnappers in the areas," Major-General Lynch told a press conference in Baghdad. "The key point is that it was intelligence-led and it was information gathered from a detainee."

The Iraqi Interior Minstry said that the three had been rescued from a house in the town of Mishahda, 20 miles north of Baghdad, but it appeared that the house was actually in Baghdad's western outskirts.

Reports of the operation were confirmed by Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, who delivered a statement in Downing Street this morning.

"The three hostages, Norman Kember, a British hostage and two Canadian hostages, have been released as a result of a multi-national force operation which took place earlier today. British forces were involved in this operation," Mr Straw said.

"It follows weeks and weeks of very careful work by our military personnel in Iraq and many civilians as well. I am delighted that now we have a happy ending to this terrible ordeal for Norman Kember, for his family, and for the Canadian hostages and their families as well."

The Foreign Secretary praised Mr Kember's "Christian fortitude" and said that he had spoken to Mr Kember's wife, Pat. "It goes without saying that she is absolutely delighted, elated, at this news," he added.

Mr Kember's brother, Ian, said he had not time to digest the news. "I haven’t got my thoughts together yet," he said from his home in Taunton, Somerset. "It’s a wonderful thing, and it’s obviously a great relief, but beyond that I haven’t come to terms with it yet."

The Reverend Alan Betteridge, a friend of Mr Kember for more than 40 years, said: "We are immensely relieved and thankful, especially after the death of Tom Fox, which made us very fearful. We were praying for his release this morning. We have been praying for them every day."

Terry Waite, who was held hostage in Beirut for 1,760 days before being released in 1991, told Ruth Gledhill, religion correspondent for The Times: "This could not have been done without someone from the inside giving good intelligence."

Relief at the rare, happy resolution of an Iraqi kidnapping spread across the Atlantic. Stephen Harper, the recently-elected Prime Minister of Canada, said he had spoken to the two Canadian hostages by telephone.

"The safe return of these men is what we all sought," he said. "I want to thank all those in Canada and around the world who worked so tirelessly to secure their safe release."

In Washington, the White House Press Secretary, Scott McClellan, said: "It’s good news that the hostages have been rescued. They are safe and free now."

Doug Pritchard, co-director of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, which sent the team to Baghdad, also welcomed the news, but he said that Mr Fox's murder meant that their colleagues' joy was "bitter-sweet".

The ordeal of the four men, and the peaceful purpose of their mission in Iraq, attracted enormous sympathy across the world. British Muslim groups lobbied for their release, although it is unclear what contact, if any, was made with their kidnappers.

Mr Kember's wife also released a televised message appealing for his release via the al-Jazeera television network, and further appeals for mercy were made by Moazzam Begg, the former British detainee in Guantanamo Bay, and by Abu Qatada, a terror suspect held at Full Sutton jail near York.

The release comes two weeks after the broadcast of a video showing Professor Kember and his fellow captives.

Security experts who analysed the 25-second clip said they were encouraged by the absence of terrorist paraphernalia such as guns, flags and orange jumpsuits, and by the lack of a new deadline. They thought that the three had escaped the clutches of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaeda terrorist leader thought to have personally executed Ken Bigley, a British engineer, and other Western hostages.

The most high-profile Western hostage still missing in Iraq is Jill Carroll, a freelance journalist working for The Christian Science Monitor, who was kidnapped in Baghdad on January 7. She has appeared in three videotapes delivered by her kidnappers to Arab satellite television stations.

The US Ambassador in Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad, said he hoped today's operation would improve her chances of freedom. "My expectation and hope is that the released hostages and the associated activities, in terms of information gathered, could help us bring about her release as well," he told Fox News.

March 23, 2006 at 07:04 PM in SAS | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home