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BAGHDAD -- Thomas Hamill, an American contractor held hostage since April 9, was recovered yesterday by US troops after apparently escaping from his captors, US military officials said. Hamill, a truck driver with the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root, apparently escaped from a building where he had been held. He approached US soldiers operating close to a pipeline near the northern city of Tikrit, 90 miles north of Baghdad, about 10:20 a.m. and identified himself. Meanwhile, 11 US service members in Iraq were killed in four separate attacks by insurgents late Saturday evening and yesterday, including six who died...

Sunday morning at around 11:15 a wounded man came panting up to a New York National Guard unit near the Iraqi town of Belad, about 30 miles south of Tikrit. The man said he was an American: Thomas Hamill, a contractor kidnapped last month after insurgents ambushed a convoy in which he'd been driving. He said he'd heard the US patrol pass the building in which he was being held, so he'd pried a door open and chased them half a mile up the road. Other than an old gunshot wound to the arm, Mr. Hamill seemed fine, so the...

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 and his wife said. 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. [snip] Six U.S. service members were killed and another 30 were wounded in a mortar...

MACON, Miss. (AP) — Civilian contractor Thomas Hamill's daring escape Sunday after three weeks as a hostage in Iraq was "the best wake-up call" for his wife, and this town's mayor promised "a parade that will not end" when he returns home. "Tommy is free!" one resident yelled as she ran to wake her husband with the news. Hamill, kidnapped during an attack on his supply convoy April 9, escaped from a house south of Tikrit and ran to a nearby U.S. patrol, the U.S. military announced in Baghdad. Kellie Hamill said she got a call at about 5:50 a.m....

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - American hostage Thomas Hamill, kidnapped three weeks ago in an insurgent attack on his convoy, was found by U.S. forces Sunday south of Tikrit after he apparently escaped from his captors, the U.S. military said. An official said he was in "good health." Hamill, 43, of Macon, Miss., was discovered when he approached a U.S. patrol from the 2nd Battalion 108th Infantry, part of the New York National Guard, in the town of Balad, 35 miles south of Tikrit, a spokesman for U.S. troops in Tikrit said. He identified himself, then led the patrol to the...

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 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...

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 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...

Press conference right now announcing Hamill escaped from his captors. That's all right now. Thanks be to God!

<p>American civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Sunday that he has "had prayer" with the wife of Thomas Hamill, an American contractor abducted in Iraq, and promised his family he would try to win his freedom.</p> <p>Jackson said he was also "reaching out" to the family of U.S. Army Pfc. Matt Maupin, a U.S. soldier who also was kidnapped in Iraq by insurgents, and had joined with Pope John Paul II in calling for the release of all hostages kidnapped in Iraq.</p>

FOX just said Jesse Jackson would be trying his hand at negotiating the release of Thomas Hamill as well as other U.S. hostages. ......

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The wife of an American trucker taken hostage in Iraq (news - web sites) last week said on Thursday she had been told her husband was "doing fine" and appealed to his captors to free him immediately. Kellie Hamill said efforts were moving ahead to secure the release of her husband, Thomas Hamill, who was taken hostage last Friday in Iraq after his convoy was ambushed. "We have heard that he is doing fine and that they are still working on everything," Mrs. Hamill told ABC's "Good Morning America," without disclosing who had given this information to...

from the April 12, 2004 edition CAMP ANACONDA: Thomas Hamill attended a morning drivers' meeting late last month at Camp Anaconda. Weeks later, he was taken hostage by gunmen. ANDREW INNERARITY/HOUSTON CHRONICLE/AP US hostage: from farm debt to IraqAdventure and work sent Tommy Hamill to Iraq. Now a town prays for him. By Steve Rogers | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor MACON, MISS. – After years of trying to make it as a dairy farmer in rural Mississippi, Tommy Hamill finally decided last summer to do what virtually no one in agriculture ever wants to: sell the family farm....

Body Of Civilian Contractor Found Near Baghdad - MSNBC NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--The body of a civilian contractor has been found on the outskirts of Baghdad, NBC news has learned, cable TV station MSNBC reported Monday. The U.S. military said the body isn't that of Thomas Hamill, who was captured Friday by insurgents who attacked a fuel convoy near Baghdad. Officials said this is another person from that convoy, NBC reported. The identity of the body wasn't released. Originally there were a total of six people missing after the attack on that convoy, which leaves four people still unaccounted for...

The Iraqi group holding a US hostage has agreed not to kill him, Mezher Dulaimi, a self described Iraqi mediator, said yesterday.Dulaimi, who heads an Iraqi human rights group, said the affair of the missing American had been settled, and that he was in good health.Earlier, Qatar based satellite television station Al-Jazeera screened a video showing a man in civillian clothes and presented him as Thomas Hamill, a United States national held hostage.Dulaimi said that the United States hostage had recieved medical attention. However there was no immediate word on when he might be released.

Family watches, prays for Macon man held hostage in Iraq By Steve Rogers and Valerie Matchette MACON - Tommy Hamill went to Iraq to try to pull his family out of debt after struggling to survive in the dairy business. Now his family and friends in Macon can only watch and pray. "I don't really know anything, we don't know anything. ... Prayers are all we need right now," Hamill's wife, Kellie, told The Dispatch in a telephone interview Saturday afternoon from the couple's home in Macon. "I'm doing about as good as can be expected under the circumstances," she...

<p>FALLUJAH, Iraq — Gunmen shot down a U.S. attack helicopter during fighting in western Baghdad (search) on Sunday, killing its two crew members. Insurgents and Marines called a cease-fire in the besieged city of Fallujah (search), but the fragile peace was shaken by shootings that wounded two Americans.</p>

Iraqis vow to kill, maim U.S. hostage By Associated Press Sunday, April 11, 2004 FALLUJAH, Iraq -Militants yesterday threatened to kill and mutilate an American civilian they captured Friday if U.S. troops don't withdraw from Fallujah. Thomas Hamill, whose capture during another convoy ambush in the area, was the latest in a series of kidnappings in Iraq. ``Our only demand is to remove the siege from the city of mosques,'' a spokesman said in a videotape given to the al-Jazeera television network that shows footage of Hamill. ``If you don't respond within 12 hours . . . he will be...

JACKSON, Miss. - A Mississippi man is being held hostage in Iraq by insurgents who have threatened to kill and mutilate him if U.S. troops don't withdraw from Fallujah, relatives said Saturday. Thomas Hamill, 43, of Macon, was captured Friday during a convoy ambush, the latest in a series of kidnappings in Iraq. Family members said they learned of his capture later that day. "They've been showing him on the TV, and they don't think he's an American," said Vera Hamill, his grandmother. "I just wish somebody would tell them he is an American.

Kidnappers set deadline for killing hostage By Colin Freeman in Baghdad and Philip Sherwell (Filed: 11/04/2004) Iraqi kidnappers paraded an American hostage in a tape shown on Arabic television last night and threatened to execute him unless US forces lift their siege of Fallujah by this morning. The captive, who was shown seated in front an Iraqi flag, identified himself as Thomas Hamill and said he worked for a private company which had business dealings with the US-led Coalition. Thomas Hamill on al-Jazeera If Coalition forces do not end their blockade, "he will be dealt with worse than those who...

JACKSON, Miss. -- A Mississippi man is being held hostage in Iraq by insurgents who have threatened to kill and mutilate him if U.S. troops don't withdraw from Fallujah, relatives said Saturday. Thomas Hamill, 43, of Macon, was captured Friday during a convoy ambush, the latest in a series of kidnappings in Iraq. Family members said they learned of his capture later that day. "They've been showing him on the TV, and they don't think he's an American," said Vera Hamill, his grandmother. "I just wish somebody would tell them he is an American. "I got God, and I just...