Two German engineers held hostage in Iraq for more than three months have been freed and will fly home tomorrow.
The two men were abducted on January 24th outside their workplace in the industrial town of Baiji, 110 miles north of Baghdad. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said they had been freed without warning and appeared to be unharmed.
"I am very pleased to inform you that the two kidnapped men from Leipzig, Rene Braeunlich and Thomas Nitzschke, have been freed today," Mr Steinmeier said.
"After spending more than three months under inhumane conditions they are in German care," he added. The men are being looked after in Germany's embassy in Baghdad.
Since the kidnapping, hundreds of people had gathered in their hometown of Leipzig, eastern Germany, for weekly vigils, placing flowers and lighting candles.
Chancellor Angela Merkel paid tribute to the supporters.
"I would like to thank the families and all those people in Leipzig who refused to forget about the hostages," she said.
Reinhard Silberberg, the Foreign Ministry's state secretary in charge of the hostage task force, told a news conference he could not provide any details about their release.
"I ask for your understanding that the government can give no further details about this case ... or about the circumstances of the release," said Mr Silberberg.