Norman Kember, the 74-year-old peace campaigner, is expected to be flown home to Britain tomorrow night after being released from 118 days in captivity in Baghdad.

British and US special forces released Mr Kember and two Canadian activists without firing a shot today, ending a four-month ordeal during which hopes for his freedom rose, and then faded when a fellow hostage, American Tom Fox, was murdered.

The three Christian campaigners were freed in an SAS-led raid on a house in western Baghdad early this morning. Their captors had already fled.

Mr Kember, a retired professor, is in good health and is reported to have told staff at the British Embassy in Baghdad: "It's great to be free. I'm looking forward to getting back to the UK."

A life-long pacifist, Mr Kember was kidnapped with Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, and Mr Fox, a 54-year-old American, in a lawless district of west Baghdad on November 26. All four were volunteers with the Chicago-based Christian Peacemaker Teams.

In the weeks that followed, friends and family of the hostages held vigils, but diplomatic attempts to win their release came to nothing. Videos made by their captors were broadcast, but were followed by ominous silences.

On March 9, the stalemate was broken when Mr Fox's body was found handcuffed on a rubbish dump in the Iraqi capital and fears grew that the kidnappers, a group unknown before the hostages were seized, might be preparing to kill the other three.

Today's rescue operation was led by British forces and came after weeks of planning, according to British sources. But a US military spokesman, Major-General Rick Lynch, said the information that led to the assault came from one of two men detained by American forces late last night.

At 8am (0500GMT) the raid was launched and all three hostages were found tied up in the same room of the house, he said. Operations continue to track down the kidnappers.

"They were bound, they were together. There were no kidnappers in the areas," Major-General Lynch told a press conference in Baghdad. "The key point is that it was intelligence-led and it was information gathered from a detainee."

The Iraqi Interior Minstry said that the three had been rescued from a house in the town of Mishahda, 20 miles north of Baghdad, but it appeared that the house was actually in Baghdad's western outskirts.

Reports of the operation were confirmed by Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, who delivered a statement in Downing Street this morning.

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