Freed Chinese Hostages Head Home
Eight Chinese hostages freed by guerrillas in Iraq left for China on Tuesday accompanied by officials from the Foreign Ministry, the official New China News Agency reported.
“All of them are in good condition and will be back to China soon,” Zhai Jun, head of a three-member Foreign Ministry team, told the agency.
The eight men were turned over Sunday to Chinese diplomats at a mosque in Ramadi, west of Baghdad.
The group traveled through Amman, Jordan, en route to China. They were kidnapped this month after arriving in Iraq from China’s coastal Fujian province in search of work.
Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said at a news conference in Beijing that their departure from Baghdad had been delayed a day because of “technical reasons with the flight.”
The plane that was supposed to carry them to Amman on Monday was unable to land in Baghdad because of heavy fighting in the area. Mortar shells slammed into an Iraqi national guard camp near the airport. No casualties were reported.
A spokesman for Royal Jordanian Airlines said Monday that the Baghdad control tower had refused permission for two of its flights to land.
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