Australian freed in Iraq; bombs kill nearly 40
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-06-16 08:25

Iraqi troops found and freed an Australian held hostage in Baghdad on Wednesday, the latest of several recent successes in recovering foreign captives.

But two bomb attacks on Iraqi troops and police, including one in which a soldier may have blown himself up with nearly 30 other troops, showed insurgents remain a deadly force.

Iraqi soldiers came across Douglas Wood, a 63-year-old U.S.-based engineer, lying tied up under a blanket as they searched a house they suspected was being used by gunmen.

In this image made from video released by the US Department of Defense, freed Australian hostage Douglas Wood, gives the thumbs up after receiving medical checks at a US military facility in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday June 15, 2005.[AP]

Coming four days after the release of a French journalist and three weeks after Romanian reporters who were held by the same group, there was speculation that security services may be closing in on kidnap gangs -- although it appeared Wood's discovery may have owed more to chance than intelligence.

Just two hours after he was freed, Australian Prime Minister John Howard announced the news in parliament, clearly delighted at a happy outcome after Canberra had refused video demands to pull its troops out of Iraq or to pay a ransom.

Photo issued by Australia's counterterrorism chief Nick Warner, showing former Australian hostage Douglas Wood, centre, as he is escorted by US military after he was freed in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday June 15, 2005. [AP]

"Mr Wood was recovered a short while ago in Baghdad in a military operation which I'm told was conducted by Iraqi forces, in cooperation in a general way with force elements from the United States," he said.

Australia's foreign minister and a U.S. military adviser to the Iraqi brigade which found Wood both called it a surprise.

"He was under a blanket. He was tied down and they claimed that he was their father and he was sick," Iraqi General Nasir Abadi told a news conference.

An Iraqi hostage was also found. There was little violence and three people were arrested, the U.S. military said, describing it as a raid on a suspected arms cache.

"I'm extremely happy and relieved to be free again and deeply grateful to all those who worked for my release," Wood said in a statement read out by an Australian diplomat.

KIDNAPPINGS LINKED?

One of three Romanian journalists who spent eight weeks in captivity in Iraq revealed that she had been held in Baghdad in the same room as French reporter Florence Aubenas, who was freed on Saturday. Silence on that link from Paris has led some to suggest agents may hope to follow up leads to more captives.

Some 200 foreigners and thousands of Iraqis have been kidnapped since the U.S. invasion in 2003 to overthrow Saddam Hussein pitched the country into anarchy. Many of those have been killed, some beheaded on camera by Islamist guerrillas.

Officials say kidnap gangs sell on hostages to militants.

It is far from clear how many foreigners remain alive in captivity. Many Asian and Middle Eastern workers have disappeared. At least two American civilians are still missing.

SUICIDE ATTACK

At Khalis, 60 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, a suicide bomber wearing Iraqi army uniform killed at least 26 people and wounded 29 at an army mess, police and military sources said.

Iraq's al Qaeda group, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said one of its Iraqi fighters had carried out the attack to avenge "women held in interior (ministry) and crusader prisons."

"He carried out a heroic attack at a restaurant frequented only by the apostate (national) guard in Khalis where he had been invited for lunch...killing at least 30 Shi'ite soldiers," it said in a statement posted on an Islamist Web site.

Six soldiers were still listed as missing. Wounded men told reporters they believed the bomber was a member of their unit -- not the first time such an attack has been mounted.

In the same town, on the main road north to the oil city of Kirkuk, two senior anti-terrorist police officers from Kirkuk were killed by gunmen who opened fire on their car, local police said. Last week, the Kurdish head of their department was killed with another officer in Kirkuk.

Around 1,000 people have been killed in insurgent violence since the government was formed in late April.

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