American hostage freed after 10 months

Bombing in Basra kills 4 U.S. agents

? The U.S. military, acting on a tip, raided an isolated farmhouse outside the capital Wednesday and rescued an American businessman held hostage for 10 months. The kidnappers, who had kept their captive bound and gagged, escaped without a gun battle.

The rescue came on a day that saw two deadly bombings around the southern city of Basra, fueling fears the bloody insurgency was taking deeper root outside Sunni-dominated territory. A roadside bomb killed four American security agents. And an Interior Ministry official said 16 people were killed and 21 were injured in a car bombing at a restaurant in a central market.

Roy Hallums, 57, was “in good condition and is receiving medical care,” a military statement said after U.S. forces freed him and an unidentified Iraqi from the farmhouse 15 miles south of Baghdad.

Hallums called his daughter early Wednesday from Iraq with news of his rescue, and apologized for causing her so much grief and pain.

“He apologized to me for putting me through any hardship,” his eldest daughter, Carrie Anne Cooper, 29, said by telephone from her Westminster, Calif., home. “He got to say he was sorry, and I got to say I loved him.”

Hallums, formerly of Newport Beach, Calif., was kidnapped at gunpoint from his office in the Mansour district of Baghdad on Nov. 1, 2004. At the time, he was working for the Saudi Arabian Trading and Construction Co., supplying food to the Iraqi army.

The kidnappers also seized a Filipino, a Nepalese and three Iraqis, but later freed them.

“Considering what he’s been through, I understand he’s in good condition,” said Hallums’ ex-wife, Susan Hallums, 53, of Corona, Calif.

Susan Hallums and her husband of 30 years divorced a few years ago but remained good friends, she said. They have a second daughter, Amanda Hallums, 26, of Tennessee.

More than 200 foreigners have been abducted in Iraq since the war began in March 2003; more than 30 have been killed.