Australian Hostage Freed; Bomb Targets Iraqi Army

[sunny]

Sigh of relief that Douglas Wood is free!! foxnews.com


Hostage Freed; Bomb Targets Iraqi Army
Wednesday, June 15, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraqi troops, backed by U.S. forces, freed an Australian hostage after six weeks in captivity, officials said Wednesday. The release came as a bomber dressed in an Iraqi army uniform blew himself up in a mess hall north of Baghdad, killing at least 25 Iraqi soldiers and injuring 27.

No details were available on the operation in Baghdad that led to the release of Douglas Wood (search), a 64-year-old engineer who lives in Alamo, Calif. He was abducted in late April by a militant group calling itself the Shura Council of the Mujahedeen of Iraq.

The Australian government refused to bend to the kidnappers' demands that its 1,400 troops be withdrawn from Iraq. It sent diplomats, police and military personnel to Baghdad to seek his release.

"I am delighted to inform the House that the Australian hostage in Iraq, Mr. Douglas Wood, is safe," Prime Minister John Howard (search) told Parliament in Canberra, Australia.

"Mr. Wood was recovered a short while ago in Baghdad in a military operation that I am told was conducted by Iraqi forces in cooperation in a general way with force elements of the United States," Howard said.

Howard told reporters an Iraqi military unit rescued Wood but the full details of how it occurred were not yet known.


The bomber walked into the crowded mess hall in Khalis, about 44 miles north of Baghdad, Iraqi army Col. Saleh al-Obeidi said.

Al-Obeidi said the man was wearing an army uniform and waited until soldiers had gathered for lunch before blowing himself up. The soldiers belonged to the Al-Salam battalion of the 2nd brigade of the Iraqi army in Diyala province.

Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, it bore the hallmarks of Iraq's radical extremist groups — which regularly use suicide attackers.

In one such attack Tuesday in northern Kirkuk (search), a man wearing a similar belt loaded with explosives killed 23 people and wounded nearly 100 after striking outside a bank as retirees waited to cash their pension checks.

Al Qaeda's northern affiliate, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army (search), claimed responsibility and threatened more violence in retaliation for the arrests and killings of Sunni Arabs.

Two Bulgarian soldiers were killed and another injured late Tuesday when their vehicle slid into a canal about 34 miles southeast of Diwaniya, in south-central Iraq, where about 400 Bulgarian soldiers are serving.

At least 12 Bulgarian soldiers have died in Iraq.

Iraqi legislators, meanwhile, seemed close to agreement Wednesday on a demand by Sunni Arabs for more participation in drafting a constitution. Such an agreement would help defuse growing sectarian tension between the majority Shiites, who control the government, and the Sunnis. The minority is thought to make up the core of an insurgency that has killed at least 1,042 people since Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's (search) government was announced on April 28.

Insurgents blew up a pipeline near Baghdad late Tuesday that carries crude oil between the domestic refineries of Beiji and Dora, a police officer said. It was still burning Wednesday, he added.

A gunbattle broke out in Baghdad's western Saydiyah neighborhood when gunmen opened fire on a police patrol, police Lt. Mohammed al-Heyali said. One Iraqi civilian was killed and six police officers were injured.

[sunny]

June 15: In this Department of Defense photo, freed Australian hostage Douglas Wood gives thumbs-up after receiving medical checks.


foxnews.com