IRAQ: Iraqi and American troops freed an Australian hostage yesterday after storming a kidnap gang's hideout in Baghdad, officials said.
Douglas Wood (64) was found under a blanket in a house in Ghazaliya, a Sunni Arab district. Officials said three captors who pretended Mr Wood was their sick father were arrested.
In a statement last night the engineer, who has a heart condition, said he was "extremely happy and relieved to be free again" after six weeks being held by a gang that threatened to kill him unless Australian forces left Iraq.
"I'm looking forward to catching up with loved ones as soon as possible. It's a positive sign for the future of Iraq that Iraqi soldiers played a key role in my release." An unnamed Iraqi hostage was also freed from the same location.
News of their release was overshadowed by suicide bomb attacks that killed at least 33 members of the Iraqi security forces. At lunchtime a man in army uniform entered a crowded mess hall in Khalis, about 45 miles north of Baghdad, and detonated an explosives belt, killing 25 soldiers and wounding dozens more.
At least eight police officers died in the capital when a bomber rammed a car into their patrol cars in the east of the city. Thirteen bystanders were injured.
Referring to Mr Wood, Australia's prime minister John Howard told the parliament in Canberra it was unusual for a hostage to be rescued in a military operation. "Sadly, the fate of others has been different and far grimmer and we are therefore . . . overjoyed with this as the outcome."
A tip-off led Iraqi soldiers to an address in Ghazaliya, a relatively upmarket neighbourhood.
The troops "subdued" the insurgents inside the building, said Nick Warner, Australia's counter-terrorism chief. Mr Wood had been blindfolded, handcuffed and not well looked after, he added.
Col Mohammad Abadi, of the Iraqi army, said it was a great day for Iraq. "It is an honour to have been of help." Pictures of a cheerful Mr Wood apparently sitting on an armoured personnel carrier were shown on a monitor.
Mr Wood, a longtime resident of the US, who has an American wife, was abducted in April. In May a militant group, the Shura Council of the Mujahideen of Iraq, released a video in which, looking haggard and with guns at his head, Mr Wood begged for his life and for foreign forces to leave Iraq. The group also demanded a ransom.
Australia rebuffed the appeal but sent intelligence officials to Iraq to liaise with US and Iraqi authorities. A less dramatic version of the events yesterday claim a deal was done and Mr Wood was left at an agreed location.
The French journalist Florence Aubenas and her Iraqi guide were also released last week. Baghdad's rumour mill maintains that the kidnappers received several millions of dollars per hostage.