A multi-national force has freed three peace workers being held hostage since late last year.
BAGHDAD, March 23 — Three Christian peace activists kidnapped last year in Iraq were freed Thursday in an early morning military operation, the British Embassy in Iraq announced.
The announcement came two weeks after their colleague and fellow hostage, Tom Fox of Virginia, was shot to death and left on a Baghdad street.
The three men rescued Thursday — two Canadians and a Briton — were freed in a planned rescue operation by multi-national forces, a British Embassy spokesman said.
The spokesman said there were no immediate indications that any of the hostages had been injured during their liberation. All underwent a medical check-up afterwards “only as a precaution,” he said.
The three men — Norman Kember, 74, of London; and James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, both of Canada — were kidnapped along with Fox on Nov. 26. They were members of the Christian Peacemakers Teams, a group that is opposed to the war in Iraq and which has criticized the treatment of detainees in U.S. and Iraqi jails.
Good.
