Middle East: Iraqi gunmen freed four Jordanian hostages in a raid on their captors' hideout, one of the released captives said yesterday, while a video from kidnappers said two Turkish hostages had also been released.
The news provided a moment of respite in the hostage crisis confronting Iraq's interim government, but fighting between police and insurgents in Mosul that killed at least 20 people underscored the scale of the security challenge it faces.
One of the Jordanian hostages said he had been released with three other Jordanian truck drivers after a group of Iraqis stormed a house in the city of Falluja late on Tuesday and freed them without firing a shot.
"When the brave people of Falluja knew that we were held hostage they raided the house and rescued us last night. We are all safe," one of the hostages, Mr Ahmad Hassan Abu Jafaar, said in Baghdad. "We're expecting to go back to Jordan today."
A group calling itself the Death Squad of Iraqi Resistance said last Thursday it was holding the Jordanians to put pressure on their transport company to stop cooperation with US forces.
Mr Jafaar said the kidnappers had wanted money.
A man wearing a black mask gave a statement to reporters in Falluja saying the kidnappers had decided to release the four men because they were supplying traders in Baghdad and there was no proof they were dealing with Americans.
The drivers had been carrying shoes and knitting machines imported by an Iraqi firm from the United Arab Emirates.
The Iraqi rescuers were sent by a council of local elders formed last month to battle crime and kidnapping in Falluja, where the interim government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi in Baghdad exercises only minimal authority.
Insurgents aiming to disrupt supplies delivered to US forces from neighbouring countries have seized dozens of foreign drivers in the past few months, threatening to kill them unless their employers stop operating in Iraq or pay ransoms.
The Jordanians, seized nine days ago, were transferred to a hospital outside Falluja, where they were waiting to be moved to the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad. - (Reuters)