NousDefionsDoc
09-07-2005, 14:25
Link (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050907/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_050907153652)
By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer Wed Sep 7,12:52 PM ET
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Coalition forces acting on a tip from an Iraqi detainee Wednesday rescued American hostage Roy Hallums from an isolated farm house south of Baghdad, a military statement said. An Iraqi also was rescued.
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The 57-year-old contractor, formerly of Newport Beach, Calif., had been held since being kidnapped at gunpoint from his office in Baghdad's Mansour district on Nov. 1.
"Hallums is in good condition and is receiving medical care," the military said.
He was held in a farmhouse 15 miles south of Baghdad, the statement said, adding that rescuers were tipped to his whereabouts by an unidentified Iraqi detainee.
"I want to thank all of those who were involved in my rescue — to those who continuously tracked my captors and location, and to those who physically brought me freedom today," Hallums said in the military statement.
"To all of you, I will be forever grateful. Both of us are in good health and look forward to returning to our respective families. Thank you to all who kept me and my family in their thoughts and prayers."
The identity of the freed Iraqi man was not released.
In the southern city of Basra, meanwhile, a roadside bomb killed four American security guards traveling in a convoy Wednesday, a U.S. Embassy spokesman said.
Hallums' ex-wife, Susan, told The Associated Press from her home in Corona, Calif., that Hallums was in good condition, "considering what he's been through."
She also told CNN she had talked to him. "It was just very, very early this morning and he called and said that he was free and I said, `That's just — our prayers were answered,'" she said.
A family Web site was topped with a headline: "Roy IS FREE!!!!!! 9/7/05."
Mrs. Hallums said she and her husband of 30 years divorced a couple of years ago but remained good friends. They have two daughters.
Hallums was working for the Saudi Arabian Trading and Construction Co., supplying food to the Iraqi army, when he was abducted along with two other foreigners after a gunbattle in Baghdad. An Iraqi guard and one attacker were killed. A Filipino, a Nepalese and three Iraqis also were seized but later freed.
In a January video released by his kidnappers, Hallums had a shaggy beard and a gun pointed at his head. The family sent fliers to
Iraq that, in English and Arabic, offered a $40,000 reward for information leading to his safe release.
More than 200 foreigners have been abducted in Iraq since the war began in March 2003; more than 30 have been killed.
In the Basra bombing, three of the civilian guards were killed instantly and a fourth died after British troops took him to a military hospital, said Peter Mitchell, a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Baghdad. They worked for a private security firm supporting the regional U.S. Embassy office in Basra, he said.
AP Television News videotape showed an overturned SUV in a ravine next to a busy highway, with British soldiers loading a body from the vehicle into a military ambulance.
Southern Iraq, where some 8,500 British troops are deployed, has been mostly calm since U.S. and British forces occupied Iraq more than two years ago.
However, violence has increased there in the past two months.
On July 16, a roadside bomb in Amarah killed three British soldiers and wounded two others. Two weeks later, two Britons who worked for a security firm were killed when a bomb exploded alongside a British diplomatic convoy in Basra.
Two British soldiers died Monday in a roadside bombing west of Basra, bringing to 95 the number of fatalities British forces have suffered since the war began.
In other violence Wednesday, Maj. Gen. Hadi Hassan Omran, an Iraqi Defense Ministry director general, was shot to death as he drove through Baghdad's southern Dora neighborhood, said Dr. Muhanad Jawad at Yarmouk hospital. The doctor also said gunmen killed Col. Ammar Ismail Arkan, an Interior Ministry commando, and wounded four bodyguards in Baghdad's western Ghazaliyah district.
Insurgents bombed a pipeline carrying oil from a field near Khanaqin on the Iranian border, interrupting a source of crude to Baghdad's Dora refinery, police said.
The developments came a day after President Jalal Talabani said
Saddam Hussein has confessed to ordering killings and other crimes committed during his regime and "deserves to be executed 20 times a day for his crimes against humanity."
An official with the Iraqi Special Tribunal said Saddam had acknowledged ordering deadly retribution against Kurds in the north of the country and boasted the killings were legal and justified.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case, said Saddam made the statement last month during questioning in preparation for his trial before the tribunal scheduled to begin Oct. 19.
The remarks appeared to diminish Talabani's claim of a Saddam confession by saying the former leader only acknowledged taking action that he believed legal and justified.
Abdel Haq Alani, a legal consultant to Saddam's family, expressed skepticism about the claim of a confession and accused Talabani of trying to prejudice the trial.
On Tuesday, Talabani told Iraqi television that an investigating judge "was able to extract confessions from Saddam's mouth" about numerous executions he had allegedly personally ordered during his 24 years in power.
But Alani said Saddam had not mentioned any confession when he met his lawyer on Monday.
"Let's not have a trial on TV. Let the court of law, not the media, make its ruling on this," Alani said.
Alani condemned Talabani's remarks and said the alleged confession "comes to me as a surprise, a big surprise."
"This is a matter for the judiciary to decide on, not for politicians, and Jalal should know better than that," Alani told the AP in Amman, Jordan.
Saddam's and seven other senior Baath Party officials face charges for their alleged role in the 1982 massacre of Shiites in Dujail, a town north of Baghdad, following an assassination attempt there against him. The trial is likely to be the first of a series of legal proceedings against Saddam and he could face the death penalty if convicted.
Talabani said Saddam was responsible for many more atrocities than just the killings in Dujail, including the so-called Anfal campaign in 1987-88, which cost the lives of more than 180,000 Kurds and resulted in the ethnic cleansing of numerous Kurdish communities in northern Iraq.
Separately, Baha al-Araji, deputy head of the constitution committee, said Iraq's new charter would be sent to the government printing house Thursday. He said it stood unchanged from the version sent to parliament by the drafting committee Aug. 28 after several deadlines were missed.
Talabani, a Kurd, said the version to be printed contained one revision, a bow to an Arab League demand that the constitution acknowledge the country's role as a founder of the pan-Arab group. The document previously said Iraq was an Islamic country but omitted references to its history as a key player in the Arab world.
Iraqis will vote on the charter in an Oct. 15 referendum, with the outcome still not assured because of fundamental opposition from Sunni Arabs, who governed under Saddam. Five million copies of the constitution are to be distributed around the country with monthly food rations.
By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer Wed Sep 7,12:52 PM ET
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Coalition forces acting on a tip from an Iraqi detainee Wednesday rescued American hostage Roy Hallums from an isolated farm house south of Baghdad, a military statement said. An Iraqi also was rescued.
ADVERTISEMENT
The 57-year-old contractor, formerly of Newport Beach, Calif., had been held since being kidnapped at gunpoint from his office in Baghdad's Mansour district on Nov. 1.
"Hallums is in good condition and is receiving medical care," the military said.
He was held in a farmhouse 15 miles south of Baghdad, the statement said, adding that rescuers were tipped to his whereabouts by an unidentified Iraqi detainee.
"I want to thank all of those who were involved in my rescue — to those who continuously tracked my captors and location, and to those who physically brought me freedom today," Hallums said in the military statement.
"To all of you, I will be forever grateful. Both of us are in good health and look forward to returning to our respective families. Thank you to all who kept me and my family in their thoughts and prayers."
The identity of the freed Iraqi man was not released.
In the southern city of Basra, meanwhile, a roadside bomb killed four American security guards traveling in a convoy Wednesday, a U.S. Embassy spokesman said.
Hallums' ex-wife, Susan, told The Associated Press from her home in Corona, Calif., that Hallums was in good condition, "considering what he's been through."
She also told CNN she had talked to him. "It was just very, very early this morning and he called and said that he was free and I said, `That's just — our prayers were answered,'" she said.
A family Web site was topped with a headline: "Roy IS FREE!!!!!! 9/7/05."
Mrs. Hallums said she and her husband of 30 years divorced a couple of years ago but remained good friends. They have two daughters.
Hallums was working for the Saudi Arabian Trading and Construction Co., supplying food to the Iraqi army, when he was abducted along with two other foreigners after a gunbattle in Baghdad. An Iraqi guard and one attacker were killed. A Filipino, a Nepalese and three Iraqis also were seized but later freed.
In a January video released by his kidnappers, Hallums had a shaggy beard and a gun pointed at his head. The family sent fliers to
Iraq that, in English and Arabic, offered a $40,000 reward for information leading to his safe release.
More than 200 foreigners have been abducted in Iraq since the war began in March 2003; more than 30 have been killed.
In the Basra bombing, three of the civilian guards were killed instantly and a fourth died after British troops took him to a military hospital, said Peter Mitchell, a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Baghdad. They worked for a private security firm supporting the regional U.S. Embassy office in Basra, he said.
AP Television News videotape showed an overturned SUV in a ravine next to a busy highway, with British soldiers loading a body from the vehicle into a military ambulance.
Southern Iraq, where some 8,500 British troops are deployed, has been mostly calm since U.S. and British forces occupied Iraq more than two years ago.
However, violence has increased there in the past two months.
On July 16, a roadside bomb in Amarah killed three British soldiers and wounded two others. Two weeks later, two Britons who worked for a security firm were killed when a bomb exploded alongside a British diplomatic convoy in Basra.
Two British soldiers died Monday in a roadside bombing west of Basra, bringing to 95 the number of fatalities British forces have suffered since the war began.
In other violence Wednesday, Maj. Gen. Hadi Hassan Omran, an Iraqi Defense Ministry director general, was shot to death as he drove through Baghdad's southern Dora neighborhood, said Dr. Muhanad Jawad at Yarmouk hospital. The doctor also said gunmen killed Col. Ammar Ismail Arkan, an Interior Ministry commando, and wounded four bodyguards in Baghdad's western Ghazaliyah district.
Insurgents bombed a pipeline carrying oil from a field near Khanaqin on the Iranian border, interrupting a source of crude to Baghdad's Dora refinery, police said.
The developments came a day after President Jalal Talabani said
Saddam Hussein has confessed to ordering killings and other crimes committed during his regime and "deserves to be executed 20 times a day for his crimes against humanity."
An official with the Iraqi Special Tribunal said Saddam had acknowledged ordering deadly retribution against Kurds in the north of the country and boasted the killings were legal and justified.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case, said Saddam made the statement last month during questioning in preparation for his trial before the tribunal scheduled to begin Oct. 19.
The remarks appeared to diminish Talabani's claim of a Saddam confession by saying the former leader only acknowledged taking action that he believed legal and justified.
Abdel Haq Alani, a legal consultant to Saddam's family, expressed skepticism about the claim of a confession and accused Talabani of trying to prejudice the trial.
On Tuesday, Talabani told Iraqi television that an investigating judge "was able to extract confessions from Saddam's mouth" about numerous executions he had allegedly personally ordered during his 24 years in power.
But Alani said Saddam had not mentioned any confession when he met his lawyer on Monday.
"Let's not have a trial on TV. Let the court of law, not the media, make its ruling on this," Alani said.
Alani condemned Talabani's remarks and said the alleged confession "comes to me as a surprise, a big surprise."
"This is a matter for the judiciary to decide on, not for politicians, and Jalal should know better than that," Alani told the AP in Amman, Jordan.
Saddam's and seven other senior Baath Party officials face charges for their alleged role in the 1982 massacre of Shiites in Dujail, a town north of Baghdad, following an assassination attempt there against him. The trial is likely to be the first of a series of legal proceedings against Saddam and he could face the death penalty if convicted.
Talabani said Saddam was responsible for many more atrocities than just the killings in Dujail, including the so-called Anfal campaign in 1987-88, which cost the lives of more than 180,000 Kurds and resulted in the ethnic cleansing of numerous Kurdish communities in northern Iraq.
Separately, Baha al-Araji, deputy head of the constitution committee, said Iraq's new charter would be sent to the government printing house Thursday. He said it stood unchanged from the version sent to parliament by the drafting committee Aug. 28 after several deadlines were missed.
Talabani, a Kurd, said the version to be printed contained one revision, a bow to an Arab League demand that the constitution acknowledge the country's role as a founder of the pan-Arab group. The document previously said Iraq was an Islamic country but omitted references to its history as a key player in the Arab world.
Iraqis will vote on the charter in an Oct. 15 referendum, with the outcome still not assured because of fundamental opposition from Sunni Arabs, who governed under Saddam. Five million copies of the constitution are to be distributed around the country with monthly food rations.