Coalition forces rescue US hostage

Coalition Forces today rescued American hostage Roy Hallums and an Iraqi citizen from an isolated farm house south of Baghdad, a military statement said.

“Hallums is in good condition and is receiving medical care,” the military said.

Hallums was held in a farmhouse 15 miles south of Baghdad, the statement said, adding that rescuers were tipped to his whereabouts by an “Iraqi detainee.

Hallums had been held since he was kidnapped at gunpoint from his office in the Mansour district of Baghdad on November 1, 2004.

The identity of the freed Iraqi man was withheld until his family was notified, the statement said.

His ex-wife Susan Hallums said she had talked to her former husband by telephone.

“That’s the best phone call I’ve ever gotten,” she said. “It was just very very early this morning and he called and said that he was free, and I said that’s just – our prayers were answered.”

“It was just so wonderful to hear his voice and to hear my kids calling me and so happy.”

Hallums, 57, was working for the Saudi Arabian Trading and Construction Co, supplying food to the Iraqi army, when he was seized along with two other foreigners after a gunbattle in the upscale Mansour neighbourhood.

An Iraqi guard and one attacker were killed. A Filipino, a Nepalese and three Iraqis also were abducted but later freed.

In a January video released by his kidnappers, Hallums had a shaggy beard and a gun pointed at his head. The family sent fliers to Iraq that, in English and Arabic, offered £20,000 (€30,000) reward for information leading to his safe release.

Mrs Hallums and her husband of 30 years divorced a couple of years ago but remained good friends, she said. They have two daughters.

More than 200 foreigners have been abducted in Iraq since the war began in March 2003; more than 30 have been killed.