BLESSED BE that is good news.

Good to hear that.

It doesn't seem to often ( if at all ) that they release hostages. Too bad it didn't always work out that way.

Originally posted by Jamesmichael
The British Hostage, Norman Kember and 2 Canadian hostages have been released this morning.

According to the BBC a force of British, Canadian and Iraqi Military Forces obtained the releases today.

Just for the record, American forces were also involved in the rescue.

from Grailkeeper
It doesn't seem to often ( if at all ) that they release hostages. Too bad it didn't always work out that way.

They weren't actually released; they were rescued. The kidnappers were not in the house where they were found.

Originally posted by jsobecky
Just for the record, American forces were also involved in the rescue.

They weren't actually released; they were rescued. The kidnappers were not in the house where they were found.

Sorry jsobecky I wasnt trying to score points here I was only reporting what I had heard early this morning - if that wasnt strictly correct I appologise.

The main thing though is that they are free again and thats the good news whoever was involved in their rescue.

Neal Boortz on WSB is covering this very issue. There is a VERY big difference between being released and being rescued. I'm making no accusations against the thread-poster, but the pettiness evident in the various press-sources diminishing the involvement of the US/UK forces is despicable.

I agree with you concerning the 'Patriotic' press releases in various countries.

The guys were rescued and thats all that matters, we are all in Iraq together and the rescue should have been reported as allied troops as it really doesnt matter which nationality they were.

Current thinking is that there was a joint operation that had been on-going for several weeks prior to this rescue to try to find the captives. A recently released captive of this group was able to give solid information about the where abouts of the captives the night before the rescue. This in turn prompted a bit of a fast-ball, and the captives were rescued.

It is my (current) opinion that the captors had caught wind of the op, and had abandoned their prisoners. My opinion is based on the fact that there was no-one home during the rescue. It is fairly poor admin to leave 3 unguarded prisoners for any amount of time. Again this is my personal opinion based on the limited info that I have been receiving, and will be happy to hold my hands up if it is wrong.

Originally posted by asala

But lets also not forget that 1 man died as well, Tom Fox

So my thoughs are of happyness of the release but also sorrow for Tom who did not make it,

Agree with you asala, I should have mentioned Mr Fox in my opening post,
I'm sure we all feel the same and our thoughts are with his family also.