A British journalist kidnapped last month in Iraq was freed during a chance raid by US forces on a farm outside Baghdad, his newspaper said today.
Emirates Todaysaid on its website that its reporter, Phil Sands (28), was held for five days by gunmen who ambushed a car he was travelling in with a driver and an interpreter in Baghdad on December 26th.
"This is frankly an amazing case. We were conducting raids on 'safe houses' when we discovered Mr Sands," a US Central Command spokesman was quoted as telling the Dubai-based newspaper.
"Nobody ever knew he was missing."
Mr Sands, originally from Dorset, said he was handcuffed and blindfolded when US troops found him.
"From the moment I was taken hostage I was certain I would be killed," he said. "A strange calmness fell over me. I thought 'what is the point in panicking - I am dead'."
He said he was not treated badly by his captors, who were captured in the raid.
The insurgents forced him to record a video urging the British people to remove Prime Minister Tony Blair from office, he said.
More than 100 foreigners have been taken hostage by insurgents in the past two years. Irish man Rory Carroll, who works for the Guardian, was captured and released last year.
Some kidnappers issued demands that foreign forces quit Iraq, others demanded ransoms or both. Dozens of hostages were executed by their kidnappers, some of whom posted videos of the killings on the Internet.
Over the same period, hundreds of Iraqis have been kidnapped by criminal gangs and militants, either for ransom or for political motives.