Carrolls 'over the moon' at son's release
The 33-year-old Dubliner, who is The Guardian's Baghdad correspondent, was released by his captors shortly after 8pm Irish time and was quickly brought back into the secure Green Zone of the city.
The first confirmation he was safe and well came when he made a telephone call to his parents, Joe and Cathy, at their home in Blackrock, Co Dublin.
His father, a former Irish Times journalist, said the family were "over the moon" at the news.
"He just said 'I am safe and well and I have my limbs on. I was in my cell and representatives of the Iraqi government came for me, they had a government car waiting. I have been in Baghdad all the time'."
A little later Joe Carroll told RTÉ that the family had been in the depths of despondency on Wednesday but that 24 hours later it was wonderful to receive the news Rory was safe and well.
He said it was Rory's mother Cathy's birthday yesterday, and his release was the best birthday present she could possibly hope for.
Rory had been reporting on the opening day of the trial of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from the home of a family who had suffered under his rule. Armed men surrounded his car as he emerged from the house in Sadr City, a Shia area of Baghdad.
His release seems to have come following diplomatic intervention involving Ireland, Britain and France.
Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern said British foreign secretary Jack Straw had been instrumental in putting Irish diplomats in contact with officials at the highest level in Baghdad. He praised the huge efforts by Iraqi's interim government to use its influence to secure Rory's release.
The identity of his kidnappers remains a mystery.
