But the rescue was a triumph for Iraqi security forces, embarrassed last month by a hasty crackdown on gunmen in Basra that sparked fighting across the south and Baghdad while failing to dislodge masked Mehdi Army militiamen from the streets.
HOUSE AROUSED SUSPICION
The kidnapping of Butler, one of the few Westerners who dared venture out in Basra without a military convoy, was a symbol of the rampant lawlessness in a city that controls Iraq's only port and 80 percent of its oil revenue.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says 51 journalists have been kidnapped in Iraq since 2004, with 12 of those killed.
It has called the war "the deadliest conflict for journalists in recent history," with a total of 127 journalists and 50 media support workers killed since 2003.
The news of Butler's release came after a night of renewed clashes in Baghdad's Sadr City slum, the scene of intense street battles over the past three weeks between security forces and the Mehdi Army of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
The fighting has been more intense than at any time since the first half of 2007, thrusting the Iraq conflict back onto centre stage of the U.S. presidential contest.
In Baghdad, U.S. forces said they had killed six gunmen in an overnight battle in Sadr City, firing from M1 tanks and helicopters at fighters using rocket-propelled grenades.
"We heard the sound of bombing and clashes after midnight. It lasted for around an hour and then stopped. American planes were hovering in the sky until morning," said grocer Ali Sittar.
A senior U.S. military official who requested anonymity said Apache helicopters and drone aircraft were "loitering" around the clock above Sadr City, hunting militants who have fired rockets at the Green Zone government and diplomatic compound.
In the slum, angry mourners carried a coffin containing the body of a man killed in clashes through the streets.
U.S. commanders have criticised the planning of the March crackdown in Basra, led personally by Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. The Iraqi government has sacked 1,300 soldiers and police involved in the operation for failing to fight.
In a statement, Sadr urged the government to reverse the decision, saying those who refused to fight had only been following orders from Shi'ite religious leaders.
