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Jan. 8, 2006 / 10:00 AM

French hostage freed in Iraq

BAHGDAD, Iraq, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- A French engineer held hostage in Iraq since last month has been freed.

Bernard Planche, 52, was released at a U.S. checkpoint west of Baghdad, on Saturday, the BBC reported.

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French President Jacques Chirac welcomed the news of Planche's release in a statement.

Planche, who was working as a water treatment engineer for a small charity in Iraq, was kidnapped from his home in Baghdad by gunmen. A video issued by a previously unknown militant group showed him with a gun to his head.

The BBC said Planche's family made appeals for his release on Arabic satellite television, saying he was in Iraq only to help its reconstruction and its people.

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Jacques Chirac

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