IRAQ: A Filipino truck driver held hostage in Iraq for two weeks was freed unhurt yesterday, a day after Manila withdrew its troops in response to demands from kidnappers who had threatened to behead him.
The US, Australia and Iraq's interim government have accused Manila of caving in to terrorists, but Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said the father of eight did not deserve to die.
The kidnappers dropped Angelo de la Cruz at the United Arab Emirates embassy in Baghdad. He was taken to the Philippine embassy, where he looked tired and occasionally brushed away tears.
He spoke to his wife and Ms Arroyo, who said she decided to withdraw a small military contingent early because of the importance of looking after some eight million Filipino workers abroad.
Militants threatening to behead Mr de la Cruz set a deadline of yesterday for Philippine troops to leave Iraq. They were due to depart on August 20th.
A source at the UAE embassy quoted Mr de la Cruz, who was first reported captured on July 7th, as saying the kidnappers told him to go inside the building and ask for help.
"We were really surprised to see him here," the source said.
Mr De la Cruz told his wife, Arsenia, in a televised phone call that he was not mistreated. A tearful Mrs de la Cruz, who had spent an anxious week in the Jordanian capital, Amman, thanked the kidnappers for not harming her husband.
The US said its coalition remained strong despite the Philippine decision to follow Spain, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Honduras in pulling out.
"It is regrettable countries are making decisions that would appear to be appeasing terrorists as opposed to standing up to them," US Gen John Abizaid said.
A purported Internet statement from militants linked to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said yesterday Japan should follow the Philippines and pull out of Iraq or face attacks.
But a later statement disowned the threat.
An American, a South Korean and a Bulgarian have been beheaded by a group led by Zarqawi, the US military's prime target in Iraq. Hopes that a second Bulgarian hostage is still alive are fading.
Kidnappers have seized dozens of foreigners since April to press demands for foreign troops to leave, to deter foreigners from working with US forces or to extract ransoms.
Many hostages have been freed, including an Egyptian released on Monday, but at least four have been killed. And a Turkish truck driver may have been taken hostage.
The hostage-taking has added to the burden on the interim Iraqi government, struggling with a renewed burst of suicide car-bomb attacks and assassinations of senior officials.
A member of the regional council of Basra, Iraq's second biggest city, and two bodyguards were assassinated yesterday. A roadside bomb exploded near Baquba, killing four Iraqi civilians in a minivan, hospital officials said.
Another roadside bomb killed a 12-year-old girl on the outskirts of the city of Kerbala south of Baghdad, police said.
And in western Iraq a US marine was killed in action yesterday, the military said, bringing to at least 659 the number of American troops killed in action since last year's invasion.
A suicide bomber blew up a fuel truck near a Baghdad police station on Monday, killing nine people.