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.

Mr Hamill's wife, Kellie, spoke to her husband by telephone. She said he told her that he was locked in a building.

"He said he heard a military convoy come by and pried the door open. He said he ran half a mile down the road and got with the convoy," Kellie Hamill said.

Mr Hamill identified himself to the troops, then led the patrol to the house where he had been held captive. The unit surrounded the house and captured two Iraqis with an automatic weapon, said the military spokesman, Major Neal O'Brien.

Mr Hamill, a truck driver working for a subsidiary of the contractor Halliburton, had a gunshot wound to his left arm that appeared to be infected, and was flown by helicopter to Baghdad, Maj O'Brien said.

Video images of Mr Hamill released by his captors a day after his abduction showed his left arm in a sling, suggesting he was wounded during the attack on his convoy.

Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told reporters Mr Hamill was in good health.

"He has spoken to his family. He is now ready to get back to work," Gen Kimmitt said. In Macon, Mr Hamill's wife, Kellie, said she received a call about 5.50am telling her that her husband had been found alive. She said it was "the best wakeup call I've ever had".

Kellie said her children were ecstatic. "They can't wait to see their father. Our daughter is just bounding around the house. It's going wild here. It's calls, calls, calls and people at the door."

She said she had no idea when her husband would be returning home or when she would be able to see him.

There had been no word of Mr Hamill since the video was released on April 10, showing him standing in front of an Iraqi flag. A spokesman heard on the video threatened to kill him within 12 hours unless the US lifted the siege of Fallujah.

Mr Hamill re-appeared about 50 miles north of the Abu Ghraib region, west of Baghdad, where he was snatched on April 9 in an attack on a supply convoy in which he was driving.

His abduction came amid a flare-up of kidnappings of foreigners during the intense violence that began in early April. Up to 40 people from a wide range of nationalities were abducted, though most were later freed. One hostage, an Italian, was executed by his captors, who filmed the slaying and sent a video to Arab television stations.

Three Italian security guards remain in the hands of their kidnappers, as does a US soldier, Private Keith M Maupin.