Baghdad, Iraq ? 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 said.

Word of Hamill’s recovery, described by chief military spokesman Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt as a “providential pickup,” came on a deadly day for U.S. forces in Iraq. 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.

“He came out of a building and identified himself to American soldiers,” said Kimmitt, who pronounced Hamill in good health. “He is now ready to go back to work,” Kimmitt added, apparently in jest.

In his home of Macon, Miss., ecstatic celebration broke out at the news that Hamill was safe.

“We’re all on cloud nine,” said Phyllis Hamill, the former captive’s mother.

Many viewed the happy news as an answer to their prayers. The town’s mayor, Dorothy Baker Hines, said she had spoken with Hamill’s wife, Kellie, and conveyed the town’s relief.

“I just told her, ‘Tell Tommy, when you talk to him, that we’ll have a parade so long it will never end,”‘ Hines said.

Kellie Hamill said she got a call about 5:50 a.m. CDT telling her that her husband was free. He later called home, “the best wake-up call I’ve ever had,” she said.

Thomas Hamill is shown in this image taken from video on April 9, after insurgents attacked his supply convoy and kidnapped him. Hamill escaped his captors Sunday.

Kidnappers at one point threatened to kill Hamill unless U.S. Marines ended their assault on Fallujah.

He was found at a site about 50 miles from where he was captured, officials said.

Deadly day

Meanwhile, 11 soldiers were killed in separate attacks, the military said, raising the U.S. death toll to 151 since a wave of violence began April 1. At least 753 U.S. troops have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003.

Six U.S. service members were killed and another 30 were wounded in a mortar attack near the western city of Ramadi.

The city is about 60 miles west of Baghdad in Anbar province, which includes Fallujah. A military spokeswoman gave no further details and did not say whether the victims were Marines or Army soldiers, but most Americans stationed there are Marines.

In Baghdad, two soldiers were killed when a pre-dawn roadside bomb detonated as their convoy passed, a military spokesman said. A few hours later, another soldier was killed and 10 were wounded when a bomb exploded near their military base in the northern city of Kirkuk, the spokesman said.

On Saturday night, Shiite militiamen attacked a U.S. convoy with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades near the southern city of Amarah. Two soldiers were killed, the military said.

Others still held

Hamill’s abduction came at the height of the wave of kidnappings of foreigners sparked by the intense violence that began a month ago. Up to 40 people from several nations were abducted, though most were later freed. One hostage, an Italian, was executed by his captors.

At least six foreigners are still being held hostage in Iraq, including three Italians, two Canadian businessmen, and U.S. Army Pfc. Keith Maupin, who was abducted in the same incident during which Hamill was taken.

A German embassy security guard and a Jordanian businessman also are missing, Kimmitt said. It was unclear whether they were kidnapped.

Besides Hamill and Maupin, six other KBR employees and another U.S. soldier initially were reported missing.

The bodies of four KBR employees were later found in a shallow grave near the site of the attack. The body of Sgt. Elmer Krause, of Greensboro, N.C., also was found.

Halliburton said in its statement that it still had no information on the two KBR employees still missing.