Douglas Wood – Australian hostage in Iraq
Douglas Wood was an Australian engineer living in the United States. In late April 2005 he was abducted in Iraq by a group calling itself the Shura Council of the Mujahideen of Iraq. His capture became public on 1 May 2005, when the group released a video of him pleading for his life and asking Australian and US troops to leave Iraq. The kidnappers demanded that Australia withdraw its 1,400 troops. The government refused and instead sent a team of diplomats, police and military personnel to Baghdad to work for his release.
On 15 June 2005 Prime Minister John Howard told Parliament: "I am delighted to inform the House that the Australian hostage in Iraq, Mr Douglas Wood, is safe." Howard said the rescue was "conducted by Iraqi forces in cooperation in a general way with force elements of the United States". He also said no ransom was paid.
Nick Warner, who led the Australian emergency response team, told the ABC's 7.30 Report that an Iraqi military unit, in a sweep-and-cordon operation in the Gazalia area of Baghdad, found Wood and an Iraqi hostage and detained two guards. Warner said Wood had been held for 47 days, blindfolded and handcuffed for most of that time and fed little more than bread and water.
A spokesman for the Wood family, Neil Smail, said the family thanked the Australian Government, agencies in Iraq, and Sydney-based cleric Sheikh Taj El-Din Al-Hilaly for their efforts.
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