“It’s great to be free,” said rescued British hostage Norman Kember, who was freed along with two Canadian fellow peace activists, Reuters reports.
“I’m looking forward to getting back to the UK,” said the 74-year-old Christian pacifist in a brief statement released by the British embassy in Baghdad.
Embassy spokesman Lisa Glover added: “Norman Kember is smiling and happy and is relaxing with British diplomats.”
Kember was freed along with his colleagues, the two Canadians, Jim Loney and Harmeet Sooden, on Thursday by special forces after 118 days in captivity.
According to reports, no gunshots were fired during the overnight raid by coalition forces, although both Loney and Sooden reportedly needed hospital treatment. Mr Kember was said to have been unharmed in the operation.A spokesman for the Christian Peacemakers, Doug Pritchard, said: "Together we have endured uncertainty, hope, fear, grief and now joy in the four months since they were taken."
Kember’s brother said: “This is the news we have been waiting for for a long time.”
Mr Kember’s friend for more than forty years, the Rev. Alan Betteridge, said: “If it is true we are immensely relieved and thankful, especially after the death of Tom Fox, which made us very fearful.”
Christians around the world were grieved when the body of the fourth CPT hostage Fox from the US was found earlier in the month.
Tony Blair also expressed his delight at the release of the hostages, saying he was “pleased for those released and their families”.
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has already spoken to Kember’s wife, Pat, according to ITN News, who is “delighted, elated with this news,” he said.
