BAGHDAD — For more than two months, British journalist Richard Butler had sat with a hood over his head wondering what his kidnappers in the southern city of Basra were planning.
Suddenly on Monday, gunshots rang through the house where he was held. There were shouts. The door to his room burst open, and Butler tore off his hood to see Iraqi army soldiers.
They were as surprised to see Butler as he was to see them, according to Iraqi military officials, who described Monday's rescue of the freelancer, on contract with CBS News, as a stroke of luck during a search of a house for illegal weapons.
Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed Askari said Iraqi forces stumbled upon Butler about noon while conducting the search as part of an ongoing government offensive on illegal militias in Basra. Askari said "the elements" responsible for abducting Butler and his Iraqi interpreter Feb. 10 had been captured, but he gave no additional details.
Butler had not been heard from since his abduction. It was not immediately clear who the kidnappers were and whether he had been held for ransom or strictly for political purposes.
He appeared healthy on Iraqi TV, which showed him being greeted by Iraqi military and political officials. Between hugs and gulps of water, Butler said he had been required to wear a hood at all times.
"There was lots of shouting and gunfire," he said, describing the commotion when the troops arrived. "Then the door burst open."
Butler's release came as the U.S. military indicated that the offensive in Basra, which began March 25, had entered a new phase in which the heaviest fighting was over. A military statement said forces were focusing on clearing areas no longer under militia control and scouring them for weapon caches.
"Our forces now control most of Basra," said Abdul Kareem Khalaf, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. He added that raids and arrests would continue.
On Sunday, the Iraqi government said it had fired more than 1,300 soldiers and police officers who refused to fight during the offensive in Basra and other areas, including Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood, the stronghold of radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr. The deserters cited political, ethnic and religious reasons.
Sadr's Mahdi Army militia has accused Iraqi and U.S. forces of unfairly targeting it in Basra and elsewhere.
