Four hostages rescued in Iraq

2004-08-04 10:17

Baghdad, Iraq - Four Jordanian hostages have been freed and are now at the home of a tribal chief in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, the chief said on Wednesday.

Sheik Haj Ibrahim Jassam said he received word on Tuesday evening that four kidnapped Jordanians were being held in a house on the edge of the city of Fallujah.

"I called upon my brothers and tribesmen to free the hostages, so we raided the house last night," Jassam said.

He said the kidnappers fled the house and the four men were brought to his house unharmed.

"I'm glad that those innocent Muslims were freed," Jassam said.

"I was in the hands of evil people"

A brother of one of the four hostages, Mohammed abu Jaafar said from Jordan that he'd spoken by telephone with his brother Ahmad, who told him: "Now I am free. I was in the hands of evil people. Now I am in the hands of good people."

The four men were abducted by a group calling itself "Mujahedeen of Iraq, the Group of Death." The kidnapping became known on Tuesday when Dubai Television broadcast a video tape showing four men holding what appeared to be Jordanian identification cards.

Families of the four - three drivers and a businessman - had previously said the kidnappers promised to free the Jordanians after their relatives and fellow truck drivers staged an anti-American demonstration last Friday.

They identified them as drivers Ahmad Abu-Jaafar, Mohammad Ahmad Khleifat, Khaled Ibrahim Masoud and businessman Ahmad Tayseer Sunokrot.

Sheik Jassam said he would personally return the four men to Jordan.

"No one from the Jordanian embassy has contacted me yet, but I will deliver them to their families," he said.

- AP