Journalist freed

French journalist Florence Aubenas and her Iraqi assistant have been freed after more than five months as hostages in Iraq, the French Foreign Ministry said today.

Aubenas, a journalist for the left-leaning Liberation newspaper, was en route home to France, the ministry said.

The reporter’s Iraqi assistant, Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi, stayed with his family in Iraq. The two had been missing since January 5.

In a brief statement, the Foreign Ministry did not provide details of their release or indicate who had been holding them.