MIDDLE EAST: Palestinians release kidnapped U.S.hostage Michael Phillips

Palestinian gunmen released an American hostage on Wednesday (October 11) hours after seizing him in the occupied West Bank. A Palestinian source said Ansar Assuna, a previously unknown faction, freed Michael Phillips without conditions. The move came shortly after the group issued a statement demanding that Israel release jailed Palestinians in exchange for the 24-year-old. Phillips went missing earlier in Nablus, a West Bank city where he was working as an English teacher with a pro-Palestinian charity, local officials said. After his release, Phillips read a statement saying: "I just want to say that I'm happy to be free and I appreciate the effort of everyone who helped to release me. "I never lost hope that it would happen I just was waiting for it to happen and this experience in any way affects the way I think about the Palestinian people and the Palestinian nation and I will not hesitate to come back here in the future and I hope to do so in the near future." Ansar Assuna is not known to be among several Palestinian militant groups waging a six year long uprising against Israel. In its ransom statement, the group also demanded that "the American government pressure the Israeli government to stop its policies" against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

ITN Source | October 12, 2006

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