Three Hostages Freed In Iraq

[simmal tree]

A Military Raid Frees 3 Hostages Held in Iraq

By KIRK SEMPLE

BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 23 — Acting on a tip from a detainee, a multinational military force stormed a house in western Baghdad early Thursday and rescued two Canadians and a Briton who had been held hostage by a shadowy guerrilla group for four months.

James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, both from Canada, and Norman Kember, 74, from Britain, were discovered bound yet unguarded, officials reported. The three were whisked to the fortified Green Zone and debriefed by the authorities, officials said, but did not address the news media.

The men, all antiwar advocates working for Christian Peacemaker Teams, had been captured Nov. 26 along with an American colleague, Tom Fox, 54, of Clear Brook, Va., whose body was discovered March 9 wrapped in plastic and dumped on a trash pile in western Baghdad. Mr. Fox had been tortured, handcuffed and shot, the police said.

Thursday's rescue, by a force that included American and British troops, represented one of the few times that military action in Iraq has played a decisive role in a hostage release.

But within hours, a surge of four car bombings, including a suicide attack, struck Baghdad, killing at least 23 people, wounding at least 48 and tempering the military's euphoria from the morning's success.

The attacks followed five days in which there had been no incidents in the capital involving car bombs, or suicide bombs, according to a senior American military spokesman, who insisted that the relative lull was a result of expanded security operations.

But the convergence of the devastating attacks, coming in the span of about four hours, suggested that the guerrillas' ability to operate in the capital remained unfettered.

"As you're well aware, today he surged," acknowledged Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the military spokesman, using his preferred pronoun to describe the amorphous insurgency. "He still has that capability."

Military commanders jealously guarded details of the morning's rescue, saying they did not want to compromise continuing operations.

General Lynch said a detainee captured Wednesday night had provided the authorities with information that guided them to the house where the three hostages were being held. The captives were found unguarded, their kidnappers having vanished, General Lynch said.

Jack Straw, the British foreign secretary, said that Mr. Kember was in "reasonable" condition but that the two Canadians had to be hospitalized.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada thanked American and British authorities for their "exceptional" role in the rescue. But he refused to confirm reports that Canadians took part in the operation, citing national security concerns despite, a statement by Mr. Straw thanking the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and "other agencies from Canada" for their role in the mission.

The rescue operation, while unusual, was not unprecedented. Last September, responding again to a tip from a detainee, American forces rescued two hostages, an American and an Iraqi, from an isolated farmhouse south of Baghdad. The American, Roy Hallums, had been working as a contractor for a Saudi company when he was kidnapped in 2004.

Last June, Iraqi troops raided a house in Baghdad and freed an Australian hostage, Douglas Wood, from nearly seven weeks of captivity. But according to some officials, the troops stumbled across Mr. Wood while on a routine search operation.

The Rev. Alan Betteridge, president of the Baptist Peace Fellowship and a friend of Mr. Kember's for more than 40 years, told the BBC that "it's tremendously good and so unexpected after the killing of Tom Fox a couple of weeks ago, when we really did fear that each one would be killed eventually."

Christian Peacemaker Teams — which is based in Chicago and Toronto and grew out of a collection of churches, including those of the Mennonites and the Quakers — sends groups of Christians to conflict zones to promote peace and human rights. The four advocates were captured while driving to meet with Sunni Arab leaders in western Baghdad.

The eruption of car bombings on Thursday began about 9 a.m., when a car exploded in Karada, an upscale neighborhood, as a police patrol passed by, an official with the Interior Ministry said. One civilian was wounded.

An hour later, someone set off a charge planted in a vehicle parked in the predominantly Sunni Arab neighborhood of Adhamiya, the official said. The explosion, which apparently was aimed at a passing police patrol, killed three policemen and wounded five others.

Around 11 a.m., a suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives at the entrance to the headquarters of the Interior Ministry's major crimes unit in central Baghdad, killing 10 policemen and 5 civilians and wounding 32 others, including policemen and civilians, the ministry official reported.

Five more people were killed and 10 wounded, according to the authorities, when a second car bomb exploded about 1:15 p.m. near an outdoor market and a Shiite mosque in western Baghdad.

Sarah Lyall contributed reporting from London for this article, and Chris Mason from Toronto.

[mann_kaum_layee_qurbaan]

is harmeet a sikh who converted to christianity? just wondering.....

[ms514]

Sat Sri Akal:

Yes...he is the one that converted to Christianity and was there on a Christian mission.

Hopefully this bloodshed and violence will end one day...

Edit: Then again...maytbe not... :wub: @ ...at least he and the rest are safe...

[japmans]

oh he IS a convert? cuz the CPT people say that it's a multifaith volunteer network that just fixes situations using christian philopshy.. i.e..he could very well just have been volunteering.. but either way, thank the lord they're rescued

[WGJKKWGJKF]

WAHEGURU JI KA KHALSA WAHEGURU JI KI FATEH

Thank Waheguru that theyve been rescued... they deserved to be rescued afterall they went there for a peace!

Its just sad when ppl doing good stuff... get caught up in all this.

WAHEGURU JI KA KHALSA WAHEGURU JI KI FATEH

[mann_kaum_layee_qurbaan]

some recent info on mr sooden:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3615293a11,00.html

"Mr Sooden was born in Zambia to Kashmiri parents and lived in Montreal before moving to Auckland in 2003. Holding New Zealand residency and hoping for dual citizenship, he was studying English literature at Auckland University.

He was an electrical engineer by profession but was fired by a desire to help the underprivileged and see first-hand the dangers faced by Iraqis.

Mr Fox, a Quaker, worked with jailed Iraqis, giving them a link to the outside. He also escorted shipments of medicine to hospitals and worked to form an Islamic Peacemaker Team.

Mr Kember, a retired British medical professor, wanted to visit Baghdad to meet Iraqis before returning home to tell their stories.

Each captive possessed a zeal to put pacifist ideals into practice in global hot spots. Members state that if they get into trouble, they do not want to be rescued by military means.

For more than 100 days and nights, rescue by any means looked remote.

Videos broadcast on Arab TV network al Jazeera showed the hostages and demanded the release of all Iraqi prisoners in return for freeing the four. Otherwise they would die.

The Canadian Government, aided by New Zealand officials, and the Muslim Association of Britain had called for the hostages' release.

Mr Sooden's parents, Dalip and Manjeet, had applied for residency in New Zealand so their son would have a family home to return to.

Dalip Sooden told The Dominion Post in January that he expected his son to be a changed man when freed.

"He might look the same, but he won't be the same. It could be a long time, maybe years, before we know that he is okay."

Just two weeks ago they feared the worst when Mr Fox's body was found near a railway in Baghdad, shot in the head and chest and apparently the victim of torture.

The other hostages escaped that fate. They were found bound but unguarded on Thursday, and are now recovering in Baghdad.

Stuart Young, a senior lecturer in English literature at Auckland University, said Mr Sooden was a very modest and courteous man who was hoping to become a teacher.

"He is an extremely gentle man, a most delightful man," Dr Young said.

"

[International Akaali]

sometimes in his name in the news they say harmeet singh sooden sometimes harmeet soodon... however his dad was on the news and he wears a pug and lives in new zealand... and his brother in law is some next english guy

[Harmeet Singh]

Hey someone said my name here.. :wub: I am still right here and enjoyin Sikhi.. :TH:

[WGJKKWGJKF]

WAHEGURU JI KA KHALSA WAHEGURU JI KI FATEH

I was on the news i found this...

And i dont think Sooden has converted to Christianity...

read second from last paragraph:

Born and raised in Zambia, Sooden, a Sikh of Indian descent, studied electrical engineering at McGill University in Montreal. In the course of his studies, he obtained Canadian citizenship. In April 2003, he moved to join his family in Auckland, New Zealand.

He was only a member of the Christian peace maker team if you read the whole article... so he must of joined them to help in seva, in trying to make peace in Iraq.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5967_16...01600060001.htm

WAHEGURU JI KA KHALSA WAHEGURU JI KI FATEH

[Singh, Mahan]

Mr. Sooden seemed to have converted to Christianity. In the following article it is clearly mentioned by those who know him. It has become “fashionable” for the ex Indian / Punjabi Sikhs who convert to Christianity to keep their Sikh name. (The reason for that seem to be many.). The confusion may come from seeing the pictures of his parents. His father keeps turban and beard and remained a Sikh.

The first few lines of the article are:

>>>>>>>> Claire Evans, delegation coordinator for Christian Peacemaker Teams, the American organisation which sent Sooden and three other volunteers to Iraq, said her organisation's first contact with Sooden was through his unsolicited application to go to Iraq early this year.

His credentials - he had made similar visits with the International Solidarity Movement to the West Bank, impressed, as did his character references, which painted him as a humble, collected - and Christian - man. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<

.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3508365a1861,00.html

.

Full text of the article. :

Harmeet Singh Sooden: peace-maker, Christian, battler against injustice

11 December 2005

Harmeet Singh Sooden changed career plans - from electrical engineering to teaching - because of his political convictions.

Claire Evans, delegation coordinator for Christian Peacemaker Teams, the American organisation which sent Sooden and three other volunteers to Iraq, said her organisation's first contact with Sooden was through his unsolicited application to go to Iraq early this year.

His credentials - he had made similar visits with the International Solidarity Movement to the West Bank, impressed, as did his character references, which painted him as a humble, collected - and Christian - man.

Sooden's Auckland friends described him as "spiritual".

Evans said Sooden's application revealed his change in career, from electrical engineering to studying English with the aim of becoming a teacher, had been motivated by political convictions.

Sooden's close friend Omar Hamed, a student at Takapuna Grammar, said the English literature student loved Shakespeare and philosophy, African culture and squash. Sooden was also active in Auckland University's Students for Justice in Palestine group, which he says his friend was drawn to as a Kashmiri.

"He feels there's been a lot of injustice to Kashmiri people, so he naturally wants to help out other causes."

Miriam Pierard, president of Students for Justice in Palestine, said she and Sooden had discussed him taking over the leadership of the group which he joined this year after enrolling at Auckland university.

"If he gets back, he more than deserves the role," she said. "He's essentially a really good guy who was willing to put himself on the line for the underprivileged."

In a message on a peace activist website, Sooden's Australian friend Donna Mulhearn described the man she met at a non-violence training session in Palestine as "the most gentle and sensitive guy I know".

Mulhearn, who visited Sooden in Auckland four months ago, was held hostage for 24 hours as a "peacemaker" in Fallujah last year. She was criticised by the Australian government as foolhardy for having entered a war zone.

The mayor of the town of Jayyous in the West Bank of Palestine, Shawkat Samha, told the Sunday Star-Times he had met Sooden and Fox and there was no doubt they were peace campaigners.

He called on the Iraqi kidnappers to let them return to their families.

"They went with us and stood in front of bulldozers approaching olive trees. They helped us. They said no to the wall (Israeli dividing wall), they said no to Israeli occupation. I think they went to Iraq to help Iraqi people against the British and American occupation. We owe it to them to let them go back to their homelands freely."

Mohammed Ayyash, from the Balata refugee camp in Nablus, said he became friends with Sooden in January, and they had stayed in touch by email when Sooden went to Iraq.

He said Sooden had talked about setting up an internet connection between children in Palestine, Kashmir and New Zealand to show each group how the others lived.

Ayyash said there had been a large solidarity meeting in Nablus on Wednesday night calling for the release of the hostages. The city's main mufti (Islamic cleric) was in attendance.

Ayyash said Sooden was a gentle and sensitive man who hated violence. His only intention in going to Iraq was to show the world what the American occupation was doing to ordinary Iraqis.

Sooden, who was born to Indian Kashmiri parents and grew up in Zambia, gained a degree in electrical engineering from McGill University in Montreal, Canada and obtained Canadian citizenship before arriving in New Zealand in April 2003.

Since his kidnapping in Baghdad on November 26, he has been seen in video film with fellow hostages Canadian Jim Loney, Briton Norman Kember and American Tom Fox.

The Briton and American were blindfolded, manacled and handcuffed, and wearing the orange jumpsuits reminiscent of those worn by Iraqi detainees at the US military prison Guantanamo Bay.

Sooden and Loney were not manacled and had food before them.