French hostage released in Iraq

A French journalist and her Iraqi driver were released after being held hostage for five months in Iraq, France’s foreign ministry said on Sunday.

"Florence Aubenas is on her way to France," a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry told Reuters, adding the reporter would arrive at Villacoublay airport outside Paris later in the day.

Her Iraqi driver Hussein Hanun al-Saadi was also released, she said. He would stay in Iraq with his family.

Aubenas, who works for French newspaper Liberation, and her driver were taken hostage after leaving their Baghdad hotel on Jan. 5.

Little had been known about their fate since then. Insurgents in Iraq released video footage of Aubenas on March 1. Looking distraught and fragile, she made an appeal for help.

Aubenas’ colleagues in Paris said the reporter seemed to be in good health.

"Apparently she has been treated well, as much as that can be the case in these circumstances," Liberation editor Antoine de Gaudemar said. "She is in a plane back to France."

"We are all crying. It’s an immense joy," said Pierre Moulin-Roussel, the president of a committee set up to support the two hostages.

President Jacques Chirac was to make a statement on Aubenas’ release at around 1000 GMT, his office said.

The release of the French hostage came as rare positive news for Chirac, who suffered a humiliating defeat when French voters rejected the European Union constitution on May 29.

France, which opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq, secured the release of two French journalists in December after they were held hostage for four months by Iraqi militants.

It was not clear under what circumstances the 44-year-old Aubenas and her driver were freed.

About 150 foreigners have been seized in Iraq over the last two years. Many more Iraqis have been abducted. PARIS (Reuters)