BERLIN - Two Germans held hostage in Iraq since late January have been freed, the German foreign ministry on Tuesday quoted Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier as saying from Chile.
Steinmeier said he had spoken to the hostages and they were doing relatively well under the circumstances.
Rene Braeunlich, 32, and Thomas Nitzschke, 28, both gas engineers, were working for a German company in northern Iraq when they were kidnapped on January 24.
Their kidnappers, who said they were members of a group called Ansar al-Tawheed wal Sunna (Followers of Unity and Prophetic Tradition), had issued several demands to the German government in the past three months.
In a video released on the Internet in April they threatened to mete out "punishment" to Braeunlich and Nitzschke unless all Iraqis held in US prisons were released.
05/02/2006 16:32 GMT