Kidnapped U.S. contractor found safe

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- An American contractor, missing since a convoy attack last month, was recovered and is in good health after escaping from his captors, U.S. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt announced Sunday.

 

Kimmitt identified the man as Thomas Hamill, 43, of Macon, Mississippi, who was seen in Australian news video broadcast shortly after his capture.

 

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - In a daring escape, American hostage Thomas Hamill pried open the doors of the house where he was being held late Sunday morning and ran a half-mile to a military convoy that was passing by, officials and his wife said. Insurgents attacked U.S. forces across Iraq, killing 11 Americans.

 

Hamill, 43, of Macon, Miss., identified himself to the U.S. soldiers, then led them back to his Iraqi captors, two of whom were captured.

 

Hamill, a truck driver for a Halliburton Corp. subsidiary, escaped more than three weeks after being abducted April 9 by gunmen who blasted the convoy he was driving on the outskirts of Baghdad. An American soldier abducted in the same attack remains missing, and at least four of Hamill's co-workers were killed.

 

Hamill had not been heard from since the day after the attack, when his kidnappers released a video of him standing in front of an Iraqi flag and threatened to kill him within 12 hours unless the United States ended its siege of Fallujah, 35 miles west of Baghdad.

 

Hamill's escape came two days after Marines started pulling back from Fallujah under a new agreement ending their assault on the insurgent stronghold.

 

Hamill's wife, Kellie, was called at about 5:50 a.m. CDT with news of his escape and later spoke to her husband.

 

"He sounded wonderful, so wonderful. He said he was fine," she told The Associated Press from their Mississippi home. "He said he was more worried about his mom, his grandmother, me and our kids."