Canadian hostages in Iraq rescued
Published: March 23, 2006
Two Canadians and a Briton held hostage for nearly four months were freed early Thursday by special forces, the British Embassy said.
The Iraqi Interior Ministry said the captives were freed in a town north of Baghdad.
British officials identified the men as Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32; and Briton Norman Kember, 74. The men — members of a Chicago-based Christian peace activist group — were kidnapped on Nov. 26 along with their American colleague, Tom Fox, 54, whose body was found earlier this month.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in London that he was “delighted that now we have a happy ending in this terrible ordeal.” He said he had spoken to Mr. Kember’s wife Pat, who was “absolutely delighted, elated at this news.”
Mr. Straw said Kember was in “reasonable condition” in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone. The two Canadians required hospital treatment, he said, but gave no further details.
He also gave few details of the operation, saying only that it followed “weeks and weeks” of planning.
The men, members of an aid group called Christian Peacemaker Teams, were abducted along with Mr. Fox in Baghdad on Nov. 26. The previously unknown Swords of Righteousness Brigades claimed responsibility.
“Christian Peacemaker Teams rejoices with their families and friends at the expectation of their return to their loved ones and community,” the organization said in a statement released Thursday in Toronto.
“Together we have endured uncertainty, hope, fear, grief and now joy during the four months since they were abducted in Baghdad.”
The men were shown as prisoners in several videos, the most recent a silent clip dated Feb. 28 in which Mr. Loney, Mr. Kember and Mr. Sooden appeared without Mr. Fox. Mr. Fox’s body was found March 10 near a west Baghdad railway line with gunshot wounds to his head and chest.
Three days later, in a videotape of the four broadcast by Al-Jazeera network, a group calling itself Swords of Righteousness Brigades claimed responsibility for the abduction and denounced them as spies.
On Dec. 2, the kidnappers released another videotape in which they threatened to kill the hostages unless all prisoners held at U.S. and British detention facilities in Iraq were released by Dec. 8.
The deadline was extended by two days to Dec. 10, but as relatives and friends in Canada and elsewhere waited in extreme anxiety, the time passed without any further word on the fate of the captives.
The silence from the kidnappers lasted until Jan. 28, when Al-Jazeera broadcast another videotape showing the four activists.
A voice-over on the tape called it the “last chance” for authorities to release Iraqi prisoners, but no deadline was announced and the silence ensued until March 7, when Al-Jazeera broadcast new videotape.
It showed three of the activists apparently calling on their governments to help them. Mr. Fox was not seen in the video.
His body was found dumped in Iraq later in March.
Mr. Loney, a well-known Toronto community activist, spent many years working on behalf of the homeless.
The Zambian-born Mr. Sooden and came to Canada from England in the early 1990s to study at McGill University and eventually became a Canadian citizen. In April 2003, he moved to Auckland, where his sister Preety lives, to pursue literature studies.
As relatives waited and worried, Christian Peacemaker Teams in Baghdad and elsewhere focused their efforts on trying to let the kidnappers know that they, too, oppose the American and British military presence in Iraq.
The group also gathered supportive statements, especially from Arabs and Muslims leaders around the world, translating everything into Arabic and posting the information on the organization’s websites.
On the eve of the Dec. 10 deadline, Ehab Lotayef, an envoy sent to Iraq by the Canadian Islamic Congress, expressed hope the hostages would be released in time for Christmas so they could be with their families.
During prayers in the al-Imam al-Aadam mosque in the predominantly Sunni Arab neighbourhood of Azamiyah in north Baghdad, cleric Ahmed Hassan Taha urged freedom for the captives.
In an unprecedented show of support, residents gathered outside the mosque and held aloft banners demanding their release.
A spokesman for the influential Association of Muslim Scholars, Abdel-Salam al-Qubaisi, said: “I think that those abducted are doves of peace who reject the occupation. They must be rewarded, not imprisoned.”
Canadian officials said Ottawa was working with various groups on the ground in a bid to secure the release of Mr. Loney and Mr. Sooden.
Canada has no embassy in Baghdad, and Canadian diplomats are dispatched into Iraq from neighbouring Jordan.
Kidnappers in Iraq have taken at least 235 foreigners hostage and killed nearly 40 over the past two years. Most have been released, although a number are still missing and believed held by their abductors.
Some of the kidnappings have been politically motivated, while others have been criminally inspired with large sums of ransom demanded.
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