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An Irish journalist kidnapped in Iraq while on assignment was
released unharmed in Baghdad on Thursday, the British government
said.
Rory Carroll, 33, is "safe and well" and has contacted his family
and spoken to British officials, a government source in London
said.
The Dublin-born journalist, who has been in Iraq since January for
the London Guardian newspaper, had been interviewing a family about
the start of Saddam Hussein's trial before being abducted on
Wednesday.
"He is safe and well and as far as we know unharmed," the source
said. "He is not yet in UK hands, but he has spoken to the Guardian
and to our embassy in Baghdad."
A spokesman for the Guardian newspaper confirmed Carroll had spoken
to his father by telephone and they were awaiting further
details.
Carroll told his parents that he had been held in a cell in the
Iraqi capital, according to the newspaper's Web site (
http://www.guardian.co.uk).
"He told me that he had been released, that he was perfectly OK and
in an Iraqi government compound having a beer," Joe Carroll told
the newspaper. "He just said: 'I am safe and well and I have all my
limbs on."
The newspaper and the British government said details of how
Carroll was released were unclear.
Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern said "a number of
friends and partners" had helped in the release.
"The government is deeply grateful to all who helped achieve this
happy outcome," he said in a statement. "I am utterly delighted for
Rory Carroll and his family."
