French journalist Florence Aubenas and her Iraqi assistant have been freed after more than five months as hostages in Iraq, the French Foreign Ministry said Sunday.
Aubenas, a veteran reporter for the left-leaning Liberation newspaper, was heading home to France, the ministry said. It said she was expected to arrive at a Paris-area airport toward the end of the day.
"We are mad with joy,"? her sister told a French radio station. She said that President Jacques Chirac told the family Saturday that Aubenas had been released. "She is in good health, both physical and mentally."?
The reporter's Iraqi assistant, Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi, stayed with his family in Iraq. The two had been missing since Jan. 5, when they were last seen leaving Aubenas' hotel in the Iraqi capital.
In a brief statement, the French Foreign Ministry did not provide details of their release or indicate who had been holding them.
The first and last public sign that Aubenas was alive came in a videotape "? apparently recorded by her captors "? that emerged on March 1. She looked pale and pleaded for help.
Last week, her editor said French authorities were making progress in the slow, painstaking process of freeing Aubenas and her guide.
Serge July, a co-founder and director of Liberation, said authorities had established "stable contact"? with Aubenas' kidnappers through an intermediary.
"It is the end of a nightmare,"? said Liberation editorial director Antoine de Gaudemar. "They are out, they are free. It is fantastic."? He said he knew know details of how they were freed.
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