Iraqi National Guard forces backed by US troops have freed a Jordanian hostage captured last month in the southern town of Nassiriya, Al Arabiya television reported today.
The Arabic station aired footage showing the released Jordanian and said Iraqi and US forces had arrested 16 people suspected of kidnapping him and demanding a ransom of $250,000 for his release.
Militants have seized scores of Western and Arab hostages in Iraq since April, escalating an insurgency against the US-backed interim government.
Many of the hostages have been released but more than 20 have been killed.
The Tawhid and Jihad group of suspected al-Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has threatened to kill two Americans and a Briton today unless women prisoners held in two Iraqi jails were freed.