US and British troops yesterday freed three Christian peace activists in rural Iraq without firing a shot.

While the Christian Peacemakers Teams expressed joy at their colleagues’ sudden rescue from captivity in Iraq today, the peace activists took the opportunity to also call for an end to the US-led occupation of Iraq.

US and British forces freed three Christian peace activists, British man Norman Kember and two Canadians, without firing a shot this morning, ending a four-month hostage drama in which an American among the group was shot to death and dumped on a Baghdad street earlier this month.

The British Embassy in Baghdad has reported that US and Iraqi forces freed British man Norman Kember and two Canadian hostages early today in a military operation.

An American hostage who was kidnapped in Iraq last year with Briton Norman Kember has been killed.

Al-Jazeera television today broadcast a 25-second, silent videotape showing Briton Norman Kember and two other hostage Christian Peacemaker activists in Iraq.

Al-Jazeera television today broadcast a brief and silent videotape showing three of four hostage Christian Peacemaker activists in Iraq, and said that the men asked their governments to work for their release.

Kidnappers of four kidnapped Christian peace activists threatened to kill them unless all Iraqi prisoners are released from Iraqi and US prisons, according to a tape broadcast today.

A French engineer taken hostage in Iraq last month has been found alive, police said today.

Gunmen kidnapped a female journalist and killed her Iraqi translator yesterday in western Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said.

An extremist group posted a video on a website today showing a man it said was an American hostage being shot in the back of the head, and the German government said one of its citizens released by kidnappers was expected to leave Iraq.

THE Iraqi Government announced yesterday it will close all borders, extend curfew hours and ban travel across provincial borders as part of stringent security measures to protect voters during this week’s parliamentary elections.

Kidnappers holding four Westerners made no contact with Iraqi authorities today, the day which they had set as a deadline to kill the humanitarian activists unless US and Iraqi authorities release all prisoners they hold in Iraq, the interior ministry said.

Kidnappers extended a deadline until Saturday in their threat to kill four captive peace activists, including Briton Norman Kember.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw today said the government cannot meet the demands of Iraqi kidnappers holding Briton Norman Kember, two Canadians and an American.

US AND Iraqi troops launched an operation in western Iraq yesterday to clear insurgents from a suspected safe area used to make car and roadside bombs.