US hostage Hamill escapes from Iraqi kidnappers

THREE weeks after his kidnapping, US hostage Thomas Hamill was yesterday free.

Mr Hamill, kidnapped three weeks ago in an insurgent attack on his convoy, was found by US forces yesterday south of Tikrit after he apparently escaped from his captors, the US military said.

Mr Hamill, 43, of Macon, Mississippi, was discovered when he approached a US patrol from the 2nd Battalion 108th Infantry, part of the New York National Guard, in the town of Balad, 35 miles south of Tikrit, a spokesman for US troops in Tikrit said. He was reported to be in good health.