Harmeet Sooden and two other hostages freed in Iraq

Harmeet Sooden

BAGHDAD - Three Western Christian aid workers have been freed in Iraq, the British embassy has announced.

The three are New Zealand resident Harmeet Sooden, Canadian Jim Loney, and Briton Norman Kember.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in a televised statement the three were freed as a result of a military operation lead by a multi-national force, including British forces.

Straw said the operation took many weeks of careful planning and involved civilians as well as armed forces.

He said he was "delighted that now we have a happy ending in this terrible ordeal."

He said Kember was in "reasonable condition'" in Baghdad's Green Zone. Sooden and Loney required hospital treatment, he said, but gave no further details.

He said he had spoken to Kember's wife Pat, who was "absolutely delighted, elated at this news."

Harmeet Sooden has spoken to his Auckland-based family and they were "overjoyed", a New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman said tonight.

In a statement, Mr Sooden's family expressed joy at the news.

"We're looking forward to seeing him in person. We are grateful also for the other hostages' release but our thoughts are also with Mr Fox's family.

"It's an emotional time for us and we would ask for some privacy in the meantime."

Mr Sooden, 32, and three other aid workers, members of the Chicago-based Christian Peacemakers Teams, disappeared November 26. The previously unknown Swords of Righteousness Brigades claimed responsibility for kidnapping them.

One of the hostages, US citizen Tom Fox, 54, of Clear Brook, Virginia, was believed to have been killed by his captors last month. His body was found in Baghdad March 11.

- REUTERS, NZPA, HERALD ONLINE STAFF