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Three Christian Activists Rescued in Iraq
By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press Writer

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AP Photo/M. SPENCER GREEN



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BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. and British troops Thursday freed three Christian peace activists in rural Iraq without firing a shot, ending a four-month hostage drama in which an American among the group was shot to death and dumped on a Baghdad street.
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the U.S. military spokesman, said the hostages were being held by a "kidnapping cell," and the operation to free the captives was based on information from a man captured by U.S. forces only three hours earlier.
No kidnappers were present when the troops broke into a house in western Baghdad. The captives' hands were tied, Lynch said.
The Iraqi Interior Ministry said the captives were rescued northwest of Baghdad between the towns of Mishahda, 20 miles away from Baghdad, and the western suburb of Abu Ghraib, 12 miles away.







British officials in Baghdad said those freed were Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, and Briton Norman Kember, 74. The men - members of the Chicago-based Christian Peacemaker Teams - were kidnapped Nov. 26 along with their American colleague, Tom Fox.
The body of Fox, 54, of Clear Brook, Va., was found earlier this month.
"We remember with tears Tom Fox," group co-director Doug Pritchard said. "We had longed for the day when all four men would be released together. Our gladness today is bittersweet by the fact that Tom is not alive to join his colleagues in the celebration."
In London, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Kember was in "reasonable condition" in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. The two Canadians required hospital treatment, but he gave no further details.

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