How arrests led to rescue for Sooden

Harmeet Sooden

It took only minutes to free kidnapped New Zealand student Harmeet Sooden and his fellow captives, but months of work went into securing their release.

Tipoffs, information from intelligence sources, aerial photographs, undercover operations and cellphone intercepts helped to secure the aid workers' freedom on Thursday (NZ time).

It was the first hostage-freeing operation to succeed since Australian Douglas Wood was rescued in western Baghdad by US and Iraqi forces on June 15 after 47 days in captivity.

The critical breakthrough came the previous day, with the arrest of two men, one of whom had links to the Brigades of the Swords of Righteousness, the group which claimed responsibility for kidnapping Mr Sooden, James Loney, Norman Kember and Tom Fox 118 days beforehand.

The Times reported that most of the investigative work would have been carried out by a unit known as Task Force Black, set up to find Iraqi war criminals and search for hostages.

Task Force Black had tracked the kidnappers to western Baghdad. After the interrogation of the men arrested on Wednesday, the location of Mr Sooden's group was pinpointed.

British troops, mainly SAS, with other international and Iraqi soldiers, were able to carry out the rescue mission they had spent weeks rehearsing. Some 50 soldiers were briefed around 3am. Half the team cordoned off the area, while 25 soldiers stormed the house.

Not a shot was fired. The soldiers found Mr Kember, 74, in good condition. Mr Loney, 41, and Mr Sooden, who turned 33 yesterday, were taken to hospital for a check up. None of their captors was in the house.

Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, said the operation followed "weeks and weeks of very careful work by our military and coalition personnel in Iraq and many civilians as well".

The former captives have spoken little of their ordeal.

Anita David, a member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams the hostages had been working for, said Mr Sooden did sit-ups every day and ran up the steps of the house where he was held to try to stay healthy. Mr Loney did stretching exercises. On their release, food was a priority.

The four were abducted on November 26. Soon after, footage released on al-Jazeera television showed Mr Kember, Mr Loney, Mr Sooden and their 54-year-old American colleague Mr Fox alive and came with a demand that all Iraqi prisoners must be released or the men would be killed.

When another tape of the hostages made it to the television network on March 7, Mr Fox was absent. His body was found two days later, handcuffed, shot, stuffed into a plastic rubbish bag and dumped at a rubbish tip.

It emerged yesterday that his fellow hostages did not know Mr Fox had been murdered until their rescuers told them.

For the survivors' families, Thursday's news brought relief.

"We're overjoyed," Mr Sooden's Auckland-based brother-in-law Mark Brewer said. "We're looking forward to seeing him in person."

Mr Kember's wife, Pat, said: "He was very, very pleased to be free, but he was very emotional in talking to me."

Mr Loney's brother, Ed, said his family was pleased the man's captivity had come to a peaceful end.

"He's lost quite a bit of weight, but when my mum talked to him first he sounded fantastic," Ed Loney said.

"He's alert and he was asking how we were doing and said he was sorry for the whole situation. My mum said, 'Don't worry about it - just get home and we'll talk about all that stuff when you get here'."