CARROLL
BAGHDAD (AP):
AMERICAN REPORTER Jill Carroll was set free on a west Baghdad street yesterday nearly three months after she was taken captive and her translator was killed in a bloody ambush.
The Christian Science Monitor freelancer was carrying a letter in Arabic from her kidnappers instructing a Sunni Muslim political party to help her.
Carroll, wearing a light green Islamic headscarf and a grey Arabic robe, was dropped off near a branch office of the Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest Sunni Muslim political organisation, about 12:15 p.m. and walked into its branch office in the Amiriyah neighbourhood.
The 28-year-old reporter "introduced herself as Jill Carroll ... and gave us a written letter in Arabic that asked the Islamic Party help her," Alaa Maki, a party member, told a news conference.
Carroll was transferred to the party's nearby headquarters, where she was interviewed by the party-owned Baghdad Television and later given a copy of the Quran, the Islamic holy book, that appeared to be covered in gold leaf.
"I was treated very well," Carroll said, adding that she did not know why she was kidnapped.
"I was kept in a good, small safe place, a safe room, nice furniture," she said adding that she was given clothing and "plenty of food."
