| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq-Jordan |
| US Contractor Sprung in Iraq |
| 2005-09-07 |
| American contractor Roy Hallums, who was taken hostage last November in Iraq, has been released, his ex-wife said Wednesday. "I can confirm he's been released," Susan Hallums, 53, told The Associated Press in a brief telephone interview from her home in Corona. "Considering what he's been through, I understand he's in good condition." She didn't give any details, but she told CNN she had talked to him. "It was just very, very early this morning and he called and said that he was free and I said, `That's just — our prayers were answered,'" she said. "It was just so wonderful to hear his voice and to hear my kids calling me and so happy ...," she said. "He just said he was optimistic that he would be OK, and I said, can he walk, and he said, `I walked a little bit.'" A family Web site was topped with a headline: Roy IS FREE!!!!!! 9/7/05. Hallums, 57, was working for the Saudi Arabian Trading and Construction Co., supplying food to the Iraqi army, when he was kidnapped Nov. 1. He was seized along with two other foreigners after a gunbattle in the upscale Mansour neighborhood. An Iraqi guard and one attacker were killed. A Filipino, a Nepalese and three Iraqis also were abducted but later freed. In a January video released by his kidnappers, Hallums had a shaggy beard and a gun pointed at his head. The family sent fliers to Iraq that, in English and Arabic, offer a $40,000 reward for information leading to his safe release. No word if it was paid. Mrs. Hallums and her husband of 30 years divorced a couple of years ago but remained good friends, she said. They have two daughters. |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #6 US Contractor Sprung in Iraq what are the odds someone would be alive after 10 months? |
| Posted by: Red Dog 2005-09-07 22:04 |
| #5 From Fox News: Coalition forces acting on a tip from an Iraqi detainee Wednesday rescued American hostage Roy Hallums (search) from an isolated farm house south of Baghdad, a military statement said. An Iraqi also was rescued. The 57-year-old contractor, formerly of Newport Beach, Calif., had been held since being kidnapped at gunpoint from his office in Baghdad's Mansour district (search) on Nov. 1. "Hallums is in good condition and is receiving medical care," the military said. He was held in a farmhouse 15 miles south of Baghdad (search), the statement said, adding that rescuers were tipped to his whereabouts by an unidentified Iraqi detainee. Also: In the southern city of Basra, meanwhile, a roadside bomb killed four American security guards traveling in a convoy Wednesday, a U.S. Embassy spokesman said. |
| Posted by: ed 2005-09-07 16:17 |
| #4 I'm glad for this. I always figure "hostages" are dead; it's so good when I get a surprise. Welcome home, Mr. Hallums, and thanks for your courage. |
| Posted by: Jackal 2005-09-07 15:13 |
| #3 Aww, screw 'im. |
| Posted by: Kos 2005-09-07 15:11 |
| #2 UPDATE: He was RESCUED by US Forces-- The U.S. military, acting on a tip, raided a farmhouse Wednesday and rescued an American held hostage for 10 months. Roy Hallums, 57, was "in good condition and is receiving medical care," a military statement said after U.S. forces freed him from an isolated farmhouse 15 miles south of Baghdad. The statement said the military had received a tip from an Iraqi prisoner. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-09-07 15:07 |
| #1 Should've went for French or Italians - I hear their governments pay well for hostages. |
| Posted by: Raj 2005-09-07 13:48 |