Filipino hostage freed in Iraq after troops withdraw

8.00am UPDATE

BAGHDAD - A Filipino truck driver held hostage in Iraq for two weeks was freed unhurt on Tuesday, a day after Manila withdrew its troops in response to demands from kidnappers who had threatened to behead him.

The United States, Australia and Iraq's interim government have accused Manila of caving in to terrorists, but Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo defended the decision and said the father of eight did not deserve to die.

The kidnappers of Angelo de la Cruz dropped him at the United Arab Emirates embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday morning. He was taken to the Philippine embassy, where he looked tired and occasionally brushed away tears.

Wearing a polo shirt, trousers and plastic sandals, he told reporters in Baghdad he had been well treated by his captors but feared he would be killed.

"At times I felt I may not return to my normal life," de la Cruz said. "But I received excellent treatment from them, they said I was a good person. That's why, I think, I was released.

Asked if he would ever return to Iraq, he said: "Not for the time being, in the current situation."

Arroyo said she decided to withdraw a small military contingent early because of the importance of looking after some eight million Filipino workers abroad.

"A father of eight, Angelo has become a Filipino Everyman, a symbol of the hardworking Filipino seeking hope and opportunity," she said.

De La Cruz said he felt "joyful" about his president's decision after speaking to Arroyo by telephone. "I know that Filipinos are all very happy about the decision," he said.

Militants threatening to behead de la Cruz had set a July 20 deadline for Philippine troops to leave Iraq. They had been previously due to depart on Aug. 20.

De la Cruz told his wife Arsenia in a televised telephone call that he was not mistreated. A tearful Arsenia, who had spent an anxious week in the Jordanian capital Amman, thanked the kidnappers for not harming her husband.

The United States, which led the invasion that ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein last year, has said its coalition remains strong despite the Philippine decision to follow Spain, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Honduras in pulling out.

"It is regrettable we lose a member of the coalition and regrettable countries are making decisions that would appear to be appeasing terrorists as opposed to standing up to them," US General John Abizaid, commander of Americans troops in the Middle East and Afghanistan, told reporters in Bahrain.

A purported internet statement from militants linked to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi on Tuesday said Japan should follow the Philippines and pull out of Iraq or face attacks. But a later internet statement signed by Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group disowned the earlier threat.

An American, a South Korean and a Bulgarian have been beheaded by a group led by Zarqawi, the US military's prime target in Iraq. Hopes that a second Bulgarian hostage is still alive are fading.

Kidnappers have seized dozens of foreigners since April to press demands for foreign troops to leave, to deter foreigners from working with US forces or to extract ransoms.

Many hostages have been freed, including an Egyptian released on Monday, but at least four have been killed. And a Turkish truck driver may have been taken hostage, colleagues said on Monday.

The hostage-taking has added to the burden on the interim Iraqi government, struggling with a renewed burst of suicide car bomb attacks and assassinations of senior officials.

A member of the regional council of Basra, Iraq's second biggest city, and two bodyguards were assassinated on Tuesday, a council spokesman said.

A roadside bomb exploded near the restive town of Baquba north of Baghdad, killing four Iraqi civilians in a minivan, a survivor of the attack and hospital officials said.

Another roadside bomb killed a 12-year-old girl on the outskirts of the city of Kerbala south of Baghdad, police said.

And in western Iraq a US marine was killed in action on Tuesday, the military said, bringing to at least 659 the number of American troops killed in action since last year's invasion.

A suicide bomber blew up a fuel truck near a Baghdad police station on Monday, killing at least nine people. The bombing was the latest of at least five suicide attacks over the past week.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq