Douglas Wood

[den]

Douglas Wood, the Australian hostage being held in Iraq, has been freed in a military operation, Prime Minister John Howard says.

"He was recovered a short time ago in Baghdad in a military operation that I'm told was conducted by Iraqi forces, in co-operation with ... American forces."

Mr Howard said no ransom was paid for Mr Wood's release.

"At no stage has a ransom been paid,'' he said.

He also paid tribute to the efforts of Australia's Islamic community and Sheikh Alhilali."


WOO HOO!

Comments

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

They're only talking about a "military action" and a "Negotiation team." What they didn't mention anywhere is that the negotiation team left the country from Perth, which is where the SAS are based. I wonder how much negotiating they did.

It's like saying a negotiation team left Hereford, England.

[lostwanderfound.livejournal.com]

This morning on Radio National: it looks like the SAS had nothing to do with it, and there wasn't any negotiation or rescue mission. On early reports, it looks like some Iraqi Army guys stumbled across him on a routine sweep.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

That's what I'm hearing too. A combined US/Iraqi action doing house-to-house searches.

Still... WOO HOO!