German hostage freed in Iraq
11/07/2007 14:34  - (SA)  

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German freed in Afghanistan 'Germany faces terror threat'

Berlin - A German woman held hostage in Iraq since early February has been freed, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Wednesday.

"Hannelore Krause's hostage ordeal has come to an end after 155 days. We are relieved and share in the joy of the family," Steinmeier said in Berlin.

Steinmeier said Krause's son Sinan, who was taken hostage with his mother in Baghdad on February 6, was still in the hands of the kidnappers.

"The dire uncertainty about her son, who is still in captivity, remains," he said.

A militant Islamist group in Iraq called the Kataeb Siham al-Haq (Righteous Arrows Battalions) in March threatened to execute both mother and son unless Germany pulled its soldiers out of Afghanistan.

The hostages were later shown begging for help in a video posted on the internet.

Krause, who is in her sixties, is married to an Iraqi doctor and has lived in Baghdad for a long time. Her son is employed at the Iraqi foreign ministry.

- AFP

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