Kidnapped Christian peace activists rescued in military swoop

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

It ended a four-month hostage drama in which an American among the group was shot to death and dumped on a Baghdad street.

Major General Rick Lynch, the US military spokesman, said the hostages were held by a “kidnapping cell” in a western Baghdad house, and the operation to free the captives was based on information from a man captured by US forces only three hours earlier.