Baghdad, Iraq – Kidnappers freed a French journalist and her Iraqi interpreter Sunday after more than five months’ captivity in “very severe conditions” in the Iraqi capital.
Florence Aubenas, a foreign correspondent who covered conflicts in Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Algeria and Afghanistan for the French newspaper Liberation, was immediately flown to France, where officials said she appeared to be in good health. Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi, who was abducted with Aubenas on Jan. 5, returned to his family in Baghdad.
Outside Baghdad, meanwhile, police unearthed 20 bodies buried in a shallow common grave Sunday. A Defense Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said none of the victims had been identified. Eight more bodies were found in the city. Such grisly discoveries are more common to Iraq’s western desert and northern cities than to the capital.
In western Iraq, roadside bombs killed four U.S. soldiers, the military announced. Two of the soldiers were killed Saturday during a combat operation about 45 miles west of Baghdad, according to a statement, and the other two were killed the same day in combat about 20 miles southwest of the capital near al-Amariyah. All four were U.S. Army troops attached to Marine units, the statement said.
Aubenas, 44, was flown to a military airfield outside Paris, where she was greeted by French President Jacques Chi rac, members of her family and friends.
“I would like to thank the French people, the presidents, the ministers and all of those who have helped me return to France. Thank you all,” she told journalists soon after her arrival. “How do I feel? Well, much, much better. When you are there, you do what you can. I was held in a basement with Hussein, under very severe conditions.”
Aubenas’ kidnappers have not been identified, and no details were disclosed about her release. France’s ambassador to Iraq, Bernard Bajolet, called it “a dangerous operation that was carried out with remarkable professionalism.”
Jean-Francois Copet, a spokesman for the French government, said “absolutely no amount of money was exchanged for their release.”
Benoit Aubenas, the freed hostage’s father, said after her arrival in France: “I have found her in very good spirits. It’s an incredible joy to see my daughter again, and to see her unchanged, as she has always been – healthy, funny, energetic and full of force.
“It is really the most beautiful thing that could happen on this day.”
Hundreds of Iraqis and foreigners have been kidnapped during this country’s nearly 2-year-old insurgency. A handful of foreigners, including at least four Americans, have been executed by al-Qaeda in Iraq and other groups bent on toppling Iraq’s fledgling government and driving out the foreign troops that defend it.
Whoever abducted Aubenas and Hanoun, however, did not publicly issue any political statements or demands, and French officials have said they believe the kidnapping was carried out by common criminals rather than insurgents.
