French Engineer Is Freed by Captors
A French engineer taken hostage in Iraq last month has been freed, Iraqi police said today.
Bernard Planche was found Saturday night in the western Baghdad suburb of Abu Ghraib, Police Maj. Falah Mohammadawi said. Authorities said it appeared the captors were trying to move him when they encountered a U.S. and Iraqi army checkpoint. They bundled him out of the car and fled.
“He is now safe and in the hands of the U.S. military,” an Interior Ministry source said.
Planche was kidnapped in Baghdad on Dec. 5. He had been working at a water treatment plant.
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