US hostage escapes in Iraq
2004-05-02 18:08
Baghdad, Iraq - American hostage Thomas Hamill, kidnapped three weeks ago in an insurgent attack on his convoy, was found by US forces on Sunday south of Tikrit after he apparently escaped from his captors, the US military said.
Hamill, 43, of Macon, Mississippi, was in "good health," said
Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt.
US military units were patrolling a petroleum pipeline when
Hamill, a truck driver for the Halliburton Corporation subsidiary KBR, approached and identified himself.
"Mr Hamill apparently escaped from a building," Kimmitt said.
"He has spoken to his family. He is now ready to get back to work."
In Macon, Hamill's wife, Kellie, said she received a call early in the morning that her husband had been found alive. She
said it was "the best wakeup call I've ever had".
Kellie said one of the first things she did was to wake up their
children. "There has been a lot of praying and I am so grateful to everybody," she said.
"We're all so relieved, so excited."
She said she had no idea when her husband would be returning
home or when she would be able to see him. "I want everybody know he's been found," she added. "I'm going to be shouting it from the roof tops."
Hamill re-appeared about 150km north of the
Abu Ghraib region west of Baghdad, where he was snatched on April 9 during an attack on a supply convoy he was driving in.
There had been no word on his fate since his kidnappers released
a video a day after his capture, showing Hamill standing in front of an Iraqi flag.
- AFP