JILL CARROLL, the American journalist held hostage in Iraq, was freed yesterday in Baghdad after nearly three months in captivity.

She appeared almost immediately on Iraqi television to say that she had been treated very well by her captors. Her release sparked a huge outpouring of relief across America.

Looking in good health, Ms Carroll, 28, who was kidnapped on January 7 in a bloody ambush that killed her translator, said that she had spent her captivity in a small room with a frosted window, “a very good, small safe place, safe room. Nice furniture”.

She said: “They gave me clothing, plenty of food. I was allowed to take showers, go to the bathroom when I wanted. They never hit me. They never even threatened to hit me. I was treated very well. It’s important people know that. I’m just happy to be free. I just want to be with my family.”

Tareq al-Hashemi, the leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party, one of the country’s main Sunni political organisations, said that Ms Carroll had walked into one of his party’s offices in the Sunni stronghold of Amriya, western Baghdad, after being dropped off in the street by her captors.

She walked inside, handed over papers that said she was the American journalist Jill Carroll, and workers there called their party leaders and US officials. Shortly afterwards Ms Carroll, a freelance journalist with the Christian Science Monitor, gave an interview to Baghdad Television, which is run by the Iraqi Islamic Party.

Wearing glasses, a green hijab and a grey Arabic robe, Ms Carroll said that she did not know what led to her release. “They just came to me early this morning and said:‘OK, we are letting you go now’.”

She said that during her captivity she had no idea where she was. “I did once watch television, but I didn’t really know what was going on in the outside world. Here and there I would get some news. One time they brought me the newspaper.”

She conceded that at times “it was difficult because I didn’t know what would happen to me”.

Ms Carroll is the fourth Western hostage to be freed in the past week. On March 23 a military raid, led by British special forces, freed the Briton Norman Kember, 74, and two Canadians, James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32. The three Christian peace activists had been held hostage for four months. Their US colleague, Tom Fox, 54, was found murdered in a Baghdad street on March 9.

Jim Carroll, her father, said he was asleep at home in North Carolina when the telephone rang at about 6am. “Hi, Dad. This is Jill. I’m released,” the voice on the other end of the line said. Mr Carroll said: “It was quite a wake-up call. It was a fantastic conversation and we are feeling ecstatic.”

Ms Carroll’s father and her mother, Mary Beth Carroll, had made several televised appeals broadcast in Iraq imploring her captors to release her. They highlighted their daughter’s articles in the Christian Science Monitor, which had focused on the problems of ordinary Iraqis since the US-led invasion.

“Our priority now is helping Jill to recover from her ordeal. When we feel the time is appropriate, we will release more details about her experience,” a family statement said.

President Bush, during a summit in Cancún, Mexico, was asked for his reaction. He saide: “Thank God. I’m really grateful she was released and thank those who worked hard for her release.”

Last night Ms Carroll, who since her abduction had appeared in three videos released by her captors, was at the US Embassy in Baghdad.

Details of why she was released were not available, but Zalmay Khalilzad, the US Ambassador to Iraq, said that US officials were not involved in negotiating her freedom. He said: “She is safe, she is free and she appears in good health and in great spirits. I want to thank Iraqi leaders who worked for her freedom.”

Her captors called themselves the Vengeance Brigade and demanded that all female prisoners in Iraq be released by February 26. They said Ms Carroll would be killed if that did not happen. The date came and went with no word about her fate. Her twin sister, Katie, issued a plea for her release on al-Arabiya television on Wednesday night.

Many Sunni leaders were embarrassed when Ms Carroll was abducted and her interpreter, Allan Enwiyah, was killed by gunmen. The Islamic Party, where she was dropped yesterday, had appealed for her release. After her interview, Mr al-Hashemi gave her a Koran and in said in English: “Don’t forget the Iraqi people.”

Thousands of Iraqis have been kidnapped in the past three years and more than 250 foreigners have been taken hostage. At least 40 non-Iraqis have been killed. Two German and two Kenyan engineers are among those still held.

• Gunmen ambushed and killed eight workers and wounded one from Iraq’s main oil refinery in the northern city of Baiji. Police said that the workers’ minibus was stopped by the gunmen while they were heading out of the refinery.

  In Baghdad the bodies of two people were found in different districts in the capital. Three civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb hit a police patrol in the city centre. One US airman was killed and another wounded by a roadside bomb near Baghdad.

  Five police commandos were wounded when a suicide bomber in a car attacked their convoy in southwest Baghdad A police officer was killed and three others were wounded when a roadside bomb hit their patrol in the northern oil city of Kirkuk.

  THE KIDNAPPED

• 86 journalists and media assistants have been killed since the start of fighting in Iraq; two are missing. 29 have been kidnapped

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