American hostage freed after 10 months
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-08 09:03

The U.S. military, acting on a tip, raided an isolated farmhouse outside the capital Wednesday and rescued an American businessman held hostage for 10 months. The kidnappers, who had kept their captive bound and gagged, escaped without a gunbattle.

The rescue came on a day that saw two deadly bombings around the southern city of Basra, fueling fears the bloody insurgency was taking deeper root outside Sunni-dominated territory. A roadside bomb killed four American security agents. And an Interior Ministry official said 16 people were killed and 21 were injured in a car bombing at a restaurant in a central market.

Roy Hallums, 57, was "in good condition and is receiving medical care," a military statement said after U.S. forces freed him and an unidentified Iraqi from the farmhouse 15 miles south of Baghdad.

Lt. Col. Steven A. Boylan, a military spokesman, said the tipster whose information led to Hallums' release was captured just a few hours before the operation.

Hallums called his daughter early Wednesday from Iraq with news of his rescue, and apologized for causing her so much grief and pain.

An image taken from an insurgent video distributed January 25, 2005 in Iraq appears to show an American citizen, Roy Hallums, being held hostage by militants and pleading for his life as a gun is held to his head. [Reuters/file]

"He apologized to me for putting me through any hardship," his eldest daughter, Carrie Anne Cooper, 29, said by telephone from her Westminster, Calif., home. "He got to say he was sorry, and I got to say I loved him. We got to say things we never thought we would be able to say."

Hallums, formerly of Newport Beach, Calif., was kidnapped at gunpoint from his office in the Mansour district of Baghdad on Nov. 1, 2004. At the time, he was working for the Saudi Arabian Trading and Construction Co., supplying food to the Iraqi army.

An Iraqi guard and one attacker were killed in the attack. The kidnappers also seized a Filipino, a Nepalese and three Iraqis, but later freed them.

"Considering what he's been through, I understand he's in good condition," said Hallums' ex-wife, Susan Hallums, 53, of Corona, Calif.

The family Web site was topped with a headline: Roy IS FREE!!!!!! 9/7/05.

Susan Hallums and her husband of 30 years divorced a few years ago but remained good friends, she said. They have a second daughter, Amanda Hallums, 26, of Tennessee.

Hallums had been bound and gagged for much of his time in captivity, but doctors gave him a "clean bill of health" after the rescue, Cooper said. Hallums told his family the kidnappers escaped and that he planned to return to the United States within days.

"I've been waiting for this day, hoping for this day for a long time," Cooper said.

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