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Australian businessman Douglas Wood, who was once forced to plead for his life on video, may go back in front of a camera to give evidence against his former Iraqi captors. Mr Wood, now in the United States packing up to return to Australia, said he had been told by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) six more of his alleged kidnappers had been captured in Iraq. This would bring to a total of eight the number of alleged captors now in custody. "What I was told by the AFP just last week is that they have caught six more of...

DOUGLAS Wood has celebrated his return to the US by drinking a Californian saloon out of Australian beer. The Aussie hostage survivor drank the bar dry and sang Waltzing Matilda at a welcome-back party this week hosted by his American wife, Yvonne. "I've drunk the pub out of Foster's," a delighted Mr Wood said. "And it's not the first time I've done that." Mr Wood has been celebrating hard since returning to his Alamo home outside San Francisco about a week ago. He denied media reports that he was almost blind. "Those stories were complete rubbish," he said and then...

FORMER Iraq hostage Douglas Wood is now almost blind, a family spokesman has said. Mr Wood had only about five per cent vision, making it difficult for him to get around unaided and severe rheumatoid arthritis had reduced his movements to a shuffle, the spokesman, who was not named, said. A lack of treatment for his diabetes and glaucoma while he was held captivity had damaged Mr Wood's eyesight. Mr Wood, 64, was freed by Iraqi and American soldiers on June 15 after being held hostage in Baghdad for weeks by a group calling itself the Shura Council of the...

ALAMO - Douglas Wood, who was a captive in Baghdad for six weeks before a military raid converged June 15 on the place he was being held, came home to his family's Alamo home late Thursday night, making a few brief statements before going into the house. Earlier, upon his early evening arrival at San Francisco International Airport, Wood had told reporters from NBC's San Jose affiliate, KNTV, "You never know what's going to happen next ... When they come in the night and shoot guys ... knowing ... tonight might be your turn. You don't get used to that."...

FREED Iraq hostage Douglas Wood plans to buy an Aussie pub. With the money earned selling the story of his survival after being taken hostage by Iraqi militants, Wood is planning to buy a hotel towards the end of the year. But first he wants to start a career on the public speaking circuit. Questioned about the pub plan this week, Mr Wood described it as a "miscellaneous rumour". But his brother Vernon Wood confirmed it was true. "He's interested," Vernon Wood said. "I think it will be down the track, in three to six months. "He is focusing on...

CAMP JUSTICE, Iraq, July 13, 2005 – The Australian army presented awards to Iraqi soldiers who rescued Douglas Wood, the Australian contractor held captive by terrorists for six weeks, in a ceremony at the Iraqi Ministry of Defense in Baghdad July 11. Australian army Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Peter Leahy hosted the ceremony, and Iraqi Lt. Gen. Naseer Abadi, deputy chief of staff, represented the Iraqi minister of defense. Brig. Gen. Jaleel Khalaf Shouail, commander of Iraqi division's 1st Brigade, also attended. The Australians presented gifts and offered special thanks to Col. Mohammed Fa'ek Raouf, battalion commander of the...

FORMER hostage Douglas Wood will meet Prime Minister John Howard today to apologise for remarks he made at gunpoint. He will also thank the Government for the multi-million dollar, taxpayer-funded rescue mission it mounted to try to free him from his captors. Mr Wood has previously said that statements his kidnappers forced him to make on video, pleading for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, had weighed heavily on him. "Frankly, I'd like to apologise to both President Bush and Prime Minister Howard for the things I said under duress... I'm very committed to the policies of the two governments...

Andrew Jaspan, editor of The Age newspaper in Melbourne, on ABC radio last Wednesday I WAS, I have to say, shocked by Douglas Wood's use of the arsehole word, if I can put it like that, which I just thought was coarse and very ill-thought through and I think demeans the man and is one of the reasons why people are slightly sceptical of his motives and everything else. The issue really is, largely speaking, as I understand it, he was treated well there. He says he was fed every day and, as such, to turn around and use that...

With guns pointed at his shaved and visibly battered head, Australian hostage Douglas Wood said things he didn't mean, parroting words his captors fed him. In a clip of film that has become a jihadist cliché — masked gunmen, dehumanized captive, Al Jazeera logo — Mr. Douglas called for coalition forces to withdraw from Iraq, a jihadist goal he doesn't share with the thugs who imprisoned him for nearly seven weeks. After his rescue by American and Iraqi forces this week, the 64-year-old engineer made it clear he'd been coerced on tape, that he had not been speaking freely. "Frankly,...

FORMER Iraq hostage Douglas Wood has revealed he might lose his eyesight due to disease. Mr Wood said today he had been diagnosed with a number of illnesses since he was released in Iraq a fortnight ago, including rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, malnutrition and the eye disease glaucoma. He said the glaucoma was not the result of his 47 days blindfolded in captivity, but due to the steroids he took to treat his arthritis. Asked if his eyesight was in jeopardy, he said: "It may be." "It may not be a major issue, it might be a minor issue. I think...

IF Douglas Wood had emerged from captivity and blamed John Howard, Tony Blair and George W. Bush for his troubles, he would have become an instant hero in some circles. By now he would be have been offered a Chair in Middle Eastern Studies at one of our major universities, and ABC Radio National would have been renamed Radio Doug in his honour. Instead, Mr Wood had the temerity to disparage his captors, praise his liberators and declare our Iraq mission worthwhile. His name has been mud ever since. According to Fairfax columnist and former Media Watch host Richard Ackland,...

AN AUSTRALIAN engineer rescued from militant kidnappers in Baghdad had to listen as his captors murdered two Iraqi hostages next to him, he said yesterday.Douglas Wood, 64, said his kidnappers also killed two of his Iraqi assistants and dumped their bodies at a Baghdad garbage tip. "I feel absolutely rotten," Mr Wood said. "I was the ultimate cause of it." He said he planned to send money to the families of the dead men. Mr Wood was freed earlier this month after 47 days in captivity in a joint operation involving Iraqi and US troops in a dangerous Sunni neighbourhood...

A BLINDFOLDED Douglas Wood heard two Iraqi hostages being executed - one at his feet - during his 47 day ordeal at the hands of his captors in Iraq. The freed Australian hostage has told how he heard the two executions at the second house in which he was held. "Over a period of about five days three Iraqis turned up, the first of which was the only one that got out alive," he told the Channel 10. "He came out with me and the other two were shot while I was there." Mr Wood said his captors came into...

MEMORIES of childhood, family holidays and past girlfriends were used by Douglas Wood to stay sane during his 47 days' captivity in Iraq. Mr Wood revealed last night that he had witnessed several executions while held in two houses. One Iraqi was killed at his feet. He recalled how he had worked hard to remain positive. "I think I was conscious of trying to keep myself sane by exercising my mind," he said. He spent time in captivity recalling family trips to Lakes Entrance, playing football, stopping for ice-cream at Bairnsdale, and even having his first tooth pulled, as well...

An Australian who was held hostage in Iraq has described the murders of two fellow detainees in the same room. In his first extensive interview, Douglas Wood, 63, also told Australian TV of his efforts to retain his sanity during his captivity. The engineer was held for 47 days by gunmen in Baghdad before being rescued by Iraqi forces earlier this month. He was reportedly paid A$400,000 dollars (US$307,000; £169,000) by Channel Ten for his story. Mr Wood was bound, gagged, beaten and fed only bread and water by his captors. 'Replay of my life' He said he heard two...

Secret efforts to free Australian hostage Douglas Wood began in earnest after his family publicly stated that they would make a donation to an Iraqi charity. Sources told The Sunday Age that the initial deal negotiated through Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilali in late May and early June was that Mr Wood would be freed for a payment of $US100,000 ($A130,000) and not the $US25 million that was being demanded. When Mr Wood's family said the money would go to a charity, it was interpreted by the kidnappers as a coded message that money would be paid to secure his release....

Hostage Douglas Wood's release was secretly negotiated by Australia about 10 days before he was "accidentally found" by Iraqi troops, The Sunday Age can reveal. But his freedom was delayed while an elaborate plan was hatched to free him without having to pay $US100,000 ($A130,000) demanded by the criminal gang holding him. The Sunday Age has learnt that arrangements were made by Australian authorities to fly Mr Wood from Dubai to Australia on an RAAF aircraft as early as June 6, but this was suddenly cancelled without explanation. Inquiries indicate that members of the emergency response team, headed by senior...

FREED hostage Douglas Wood has told how he feared al-Qaida was coming to execute him as US and Iraqi rescue forces swooped. "It's throat cutting time again," Wood said to himself as he heard his saviours breaking in. He has also revealed that he offered to stay in Iraq and help catch his kidnappers. And that he was ordered to cry while begging for his life in the chilling first video shot by his kidnappers. "I was told I had to cry. I physically had a problem that I had to cry . . . I am a male chauvinist...

THE editor of Melbourne's The Age newspaper has defended Australia's Journalist of the Year, Paul McGeough, in the wake of revelations that he may have erred in two significant reports he filed from Iraq. McGeough claimed in an article published in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald that former Iraqi interim leader Iyad Allawi shot dead as many as six prisoners in June last year. But the story was discredited by a report yesterday that Iraqi officials and US special forces bodyguards assigned to Allawi had passed lie detector tests in denying the murder allegations. "My view is that...

MELBOURNE, Australia -- An Australian engineer held hostage in Iraq for nearly seven weeks arrived in his home country yesterday and apologized for his televised plea for coalition forces to withdraw from Iraq. Douglas Wood, 64, who lives in Alamo, Calif., told reporters at Melbourne's airport that he supported the coalition forces' role in Iraq. "Frankly, I'd like to apologize to both President Bush and Prime Minister [John] Howard for the things I said under duress," said Mr. Wood, with his American wife, Yvonne Given, and his brothers, Vernon and Malcolm, and their wives by his side. "I actually believe...

You could almost hear the incredulous victory shouts from Pyrmont HQ blowing all the way south of the border through Melbourne's wintry streets. Somehow, Channel Ten had outmanoeuvred and, more crucially, outbid its heavyweight commercial rivals and nailed the story of the year: an exclusive interview with the man now commonly known as the Freed Iraq Hostage Douglas Wood. The promos started rolling through Big Brother's live nominations on Monday night, which was unnervingly apt given we had all become bit players in this bloke's life, tuning in day after day to find out whether it was time for Douglas...

Douglas Wood's Iraqi captors forced their hostages to watch the executions of fellow prisoners, a released hostage has revealed. Swedish oil trader Ulf Hjertstrom, 63, told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that he was held captive in Iraq for 67 days, spending about about a month of that time in the same house as Mr Wood. Aftonbladet night editor Sverker Laestadius told theage.com.au that Mr Hjertstrom revealed he had been forced to watch "eight or nine'' executions. "They made him watch while they shot them, then after a while they took the bodies away,'' Mr Laestadius said. Mr Hjertstrom could not confirm...

The hero of the day is now a product being ripened by a platoon of PR agents, managers, stylists and personal trainers. There's a buck to be made with this boy. Not that Douglas Wood doesn't understand how to trot out a volley of cliches all on his own: "It's great to be an Australian … God bless America … Any chance of a VB? … It's bloody good to be home … How are the Cats going? … Waltzing Matilda." Not bad for a guy who's lived away from his proud homeland for 25 years. The Geelong Football Club...

Editorial: Douglas Wood tells it straight June 21, 2005 TO the objective observer there would seem to be only good news surrounding the circumstances of Douglas Wood's release from captivity. But this has not stopped people who cannot stand anything positive coming out of Iraq from finding the dark cloud inside the silver lining. According to those who conform to David Marr's "soft-leftie" stipulation for working in the Australian media, Mr Wood could have been released much earlier but for tactical mistakes by the Australian taskforce. John Howard, they say, has exploited Mr Wood's predicament for political gain. And anyway,...

TWO Iraqi hostages captured with Douglas Wood were murdered in mid-May. The revelation raises serious questions about why the Mufti of Australia, Sheik Taj el-Din el-Hilaly, accused Iraqi forces of risking their lives during the Wood rescue mission. The men, Faris Shakir and Adel Farhaway Najm, were shot and hanged after being tortured, and their bodies dumped at a rubbish tip. The bodies were held by police until identified by their families on Friday, and immediately buried. But Sheik el-Hilaly yesterday continued to insist he was worried about them. "He's quite concerned for those other two people, people who were...

DOUGLAS Wood could be killed if he returned to Iraq after calling his captors "arseholes", a spokesman for the Mufti of Australia says. Mr Wood, 63, arrived in Australia yesterday after spending 47 days as a hostage in the war-torn country, but has indicated he may go back for business reasons. But Keysar Trad, a spokesman for Australian Mufti Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilaly, said he would be very afraid for Mr Wood's life if he returned to Iraq. "I would be very concerned for his safety, especially after the comments that he's made yesterday with the negative references he's made...

TO the objective observer there would seem to be only good news surrounding the circumstances of Douglas Wood's release from captivity. But this has not stopped people who cannot stand anything positive coming out of Iraq from finding the dark cloud inside the silver lining. According to those who conform to David Marr's "soft-leftie" stipulation for working in the Australian media, Mr Wood could have been released much earlier but for tactical mistakes by the Australian taskforce. John Howard, they say, has exploited Mr Wood's predicament for political gain. And anyway, wasn't Mr Wood just a mercenary in Iraq who...

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - An Australian engineer from California dramatically rescued from insurgents in Baghdad last week arrived back in his native country Monday and apologized for his televised plea for coalition forces to withdraw from Iraq. The world discovered Douglas Wood had been abducted when his captors released a DVD through Arabic television May 1 showing him with automatic weapons pointed at his head as he pleaded for troops to pull out of Iraq. But at his first media conference since being freed, the 64-year-old resident of Alamo, Calif., said he supported the coalition forces' role in Iraq. "Frankly...

Freed Iraq Hostage Now Supports Coalition By ROD McGUIRK, Associated Press Writer 57 minutes ago MELBOURNE, Australia - An Australian engineer held hostage in Iraq for nearly seven weeks arrived in his home country Monday and apologized for his televised plea for coalition forces to withdraw from Iraq. Douglas Wood, 64, who lives in Alamo, Calif., told reporters at Melbourne's airport he supported the coalition forces' role in Iraq. ADVERTISEMENT "Frankly I'd like to apologize to both President Bush and Prime Minister (John) Howard for the things I said under duress," said Wood, with his American wife Yvonne Given and...

FREED Australian hostage Douglas Wood ysterday apologised to the Australian and US governments for his plea for troops to be withdrawn from Iraq, saying it was made under duress. Meanwhile, despite his 47-day ordeal, the Australian engineer says he may return to Iraq to pursue business opportunities, despite his family's pleas not to. Mr Wood, 63, arrived in Melbourne yesterday, less than a week after being freed in Baghdad by Iraqi and US troops. It was "bloody good" to be home, said the jovial Australian, who entered a packed press conference singing Waltzing Matilda. But he also revealed his anger...

An Australian engineer held hostage in Iraq until he was rescued last week has apologized to the U.S. and Australian governments for calling at gunpoint for foreign troops to leave the country. Douglas Wood, who was held by terrorists for 47 days, told a press conference on his arrival in Australia Monday that the comments had been made under duress. The fact that he was rescued by members the new Iraqi army demonstrated the correctness of U.S. and Australian policies in Iraq, which he supported, he said. Iraqi troops found Wood hidden under a blanket during an armed raid on...

CNN -- The Australian hostage held captive for nearly seven weeks in Iraq before being freed last week has said his rescue by Iraqi troops is a sign that U.S. and Australian policies are working. "I actually believe that I am proof positive that the current policy of training the Iraqi army -- of recruiting, training and buddying them worked -- because it was the Iraqis that got me out," Douglas Wood told reporters in Melbourne after returning to Australia Monday morning. The 64-year-old engineer also apologized to U.S. President George W. Bush and Australian Prime Minister John Howard for...

PRIME Minister John Howard has denied there was a botched attempt by Australians to rescue hostage Douglas Wood from captivity just 10 days after he was taken. Mr Wood, who this morning arrived back in Australia after being held hostage for 47 days in Iraq, said he was moved from one house to another about 10 days into his captivity. But Mr Howard said no Australian was involved in any failed attempt to rescue Mr Wood. "At no stage did our people do anything inappropriate," he told ABC radio. "I can also deny explicitly the proposition that in some way...

DOUGLAS Wood said this morning it was "bloody good" to be home after arriving in Melbourne to be reunited with his family after spending 47 days in captivity as a hostage in Iraq. The engineer said he had some physical ailments after the ordeal but was not feeling "especially" fragile. There were times he said he believed he would be killed while he was being held by his captors, who he emphatically described as "a...holes". His way of getting through it, he said, was to "keep laughing". Mr Wood avoided speaking in detail about his time in captivity during a...

DOUGLAS Wood said this morning it was "bloody good" to be home after arriving in Melbourne to be reunited with his family after spending 47 days in captivity as a hostage in Iraq. The engineer said he had some physical ailments after the ordeal but was not feeling "especially" fragile. He said it was tough readjusting after his hostage ordeal "but we'll get there". He avoided speaking in detail about his time in captivity during a news conference which he entered humming Waltzing Matilda. Mr Wood said he apologised to Prime Minister John Howard and US President George W. Bush...

DOUGLAS Wood has told how he expected to die after two hostages held with him were executed during his 47 days of captivity. Mr Wood, 63, was yesterday reunited with wife Yvonne Given and celebrated his freedom with a steak and mashed potatoes, washed down with six cans of VB. Australian officials debriefing him at a secret location in Dubai said his mental state was "very good" despite clearly recalling the trauma of each day in captivity. "He's a real character. He's a larger-than-life figure," the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's deputy secretary, Nick Warner, said. Mr Warner headed...

FORMER hostage Douglas Wood would fly into Melbourne from Dubai tomorrow morning, his brother said today. Vernon Wood said the family was "looking forward to having him home safe and sound". However, he said he had no idea how long Mr Wood, who would be accompanied by his American wife, would stay. He said he hoped a meeting would take place between Douglas Wood and Prime Minister John Howard. "We'd like to get Doug to meet with Prime Minister Howard and (Foreign Minister) Alexander Downer as soon as possible," he said. Reading a written statement to reporters, Vernon Wood said:...

CANBERRA, Australia - An Australian engineer from California who was dramatically rescued in Baghdad last week after being held hostage for six weeks would have been released without military intervention, Australia's most senior Muslim cleric insisted Sunday. Iraqi and U.S. troops freed Douglas Wood, a 64-year-old resident of Alamo, California, early on July 15 from a Baghdad house where insurgents were holding him for ransom. Sheik Taj El Din al-Hilaly, an Egyptian-born Sunni cleric who flew from his Sydney home within days of the April 30 abduction to negotiate a release, said Wood was to have been released the day...

Douglas Wood's liberation is a setback to the callous hearts behind the scourge of hostage-taking in Iraq, writes Tony Parkinson. No ransom was paid. No troops were withdrawn. Douglas Wood was liberated from his captors without any concessions to terror or extortion. This is as it should be: nobody should have to barter for the life of an innocent man. The liberation of the 63-year-old Australian after 47 days under threat of death is a setback to the callous hearts behind the scourge of hostage-taking in Iraq. This time, they were rewarded with neither blood, nor money, nor psychic thrill....

DOUGLAS Wood sounds like a terrific fellow. Dry sense of humour. Fondness for VB. More interested in his precious Geelong footy club than recounting his traumatic misadventures in Baghdad. There's surely a lot more to this blessed rogue -- who, despite not visiting these shores since 1993, sounds quintessentially Australian - than the emerging picture. It's doubtful a beer and a glance at the AFL ladder can salve the scars of a terrifying kidnapping. Yet one thing is beyond question: Mr Wood has been tremendously well served by his next of kin. The Wood clan ended this saga as they...

IN the desperate moments before his miraculous rescue, Aussie survivor Douglas Wood knew his life hung by a thread. The 63-year-old engineer told yesterday of his blind terror when Iraqi kidnappers pulled a blanket over his head amid a hail of bullets inside the very room that was his prison. "I wasn't sure what was happening," Mr Wood said from a hospital bed. He had been bound hand and foot in the bedroom of a nondescript house in the dangerous Baghdad suburb of Ghazaliya, and was forced face-down to the floor when Iraqi and US troops -- acting on a...

FREED Australian hostage Douglas Wood flew to a secret Middle East location last night as his relieved family prepared to make a $100,000-plus donation to Iraqi charities. The 63-year-old engineer was recovering in hospital, but doctors said he was in surprisingly good shape after his 47-day ordeal. As his family celebrated his release, details emerged of the physical and mental degradation he suffered while held in various Baghdad locations. Mr Wood, who was kidnapped on the way to work on April 30, was handcuffed and bound for much of the time he spent in captivity. His captors also "badly corrupted"...

Australia's foreign minister, Alexander Downer, has confirmed that no ransom was paid for the release of the hostage, Douglas Wood. Mr Wood has thanked the Iraqi troops who freed him from insurgents on Wednesday after more than six weeks in captivity. The 63-year-old has released a statement via Nick Warner, the head of the Australian team sent to Iraq to help free him. He was freed by soldiers from Iraq's First Armoured Brigade, with assistance from US forces, in one of Baghdad's most dangerous Sunni Arab districts. They found him during what the US military has described as a routine...

WHEN Douglas Wood uttered the secret word – "Monty" – the Australian rescue team knew they had their man. Moments after Mr Wood was freed from his Iraqi captors, Americans soldiers arranged a telephone call from Mr Wood to Nick Warner, head of the Australian Government's Emergency Response Team in Baghdad. To confirm Mr Wood's identity, Mr Warner asked him a "proof of life" question, which had been supplied by Mr Wood's family. "What was the name of your family dog when you grew up in Geelong?" Mr Warner asked. "We had a cat," Mr Wood replied. "But you also...

Statement from the Wood Family The family is delighted that Douglas has been released. It has been a horrifying ordeal for him. The family is greatly relieved. The family greatly appreciates the work that has been done towards Douglas's release by the Australian Government team in Iraq and officials in Canberra, other agencies in Iraq and earlier by Sheik Al-Hilaly. Statement by Douglas Wood's daughter, Christina. I am overjoyed and so thankful for my Dad's safe release. Karl, Alie, Nicholas, and I are thrilled and eagerly look forward to seeing him soon. I want to thank everyone for their good...

Late Wednesday morning in a dangerous Baghdad neighborhood, 15 Iraqi soldiers on a cordon-and-search operation suddenly had a question for their commander, identified by the U.S. military only as Colonel Mohammed: Should they break down the second door of a house they had been ordered to search? According to U.S. military sources, Col. Mohammed, who as an officer in Saddam Hussein's Iraqi Army during the Gulf War in 1991 shot down a US F-15, barely hesitated: "Yes, of course break it down!" The colonel then returned to what he had been doing: passing out American-provided crayons, stuffed animals and backpacks...

SYDNEY, Australia (AHN) – An Australian national held hostage for four weeks has finally been released in a military operation. Australian Prime Minister John Howard announced the news on Wednesday. Howard told that Australian hostage Douglas Wood has been successfully rescued by international forces from his captors.He is said to be safe and currently in Baghdad. Wood went to several medical checks that declared him well. "Mr. Wood was recovered a short while ago in Baghdad in a military operation that I am told was conducted by Iraqi forces in cooperation in a general way with force elements of the...

Douglas Wood is safe: Howard CANBERRA: Australian hostage Douglas Wood who was kidnapped in Iraq has been released, Prime Minister John Howard has told parliament. Mr Howard said Mr Wood was under the protection of an Australian team sent to Baghdad to negotiate his release. "He's now under the protection of the Australian emergency response team in Baghdad," he told parliament. "I understand that he is well, he's undergoing medical checks at the present time." Mr Howard said Australians would be jubilant about the news of Mr Wood's release. "This man has suffered immensely," he said. "I want on...

(CNN) -- Australian hostage Douglas Wood was rescued when Iraqi soldiers stumbled across him during a security sweep in Baghdad, according to a U.S. military official. ... The soldiers, from the 2nd Battalion 1st Brigade of the Iraqi army, had not been acting with specific intelligence on his whereabouts, the official told CNN. Headline/Link on CNN.com frontpage: "Iraqi soldiers stumble upon hostage"

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Australian hostage Douglas Wood was freed by Iraqi and U.S. forces after six weeks in captivity, Australia's prime minister said on Wednesday. But the latest in a recent series of successful operations to release foreigners kidnapped in Iraq was overshadowed by two more bomb attacks on Iraqi security forces. A uniformed suicide bomber killed at least 23 soldiers at a mess hall and 10 police and civilians were killed by a car bomb in Baghdad. "Mr Wood was recovered a short while ago in Baghdad in a military operation which I'm told was conducted by Iraqi forces,...