This Issue:

Table of Contents

Cover Story

Grades 4-6

Jill Carroll Is Freed in Iraq

There was cause for celebration in Iraq last Thursday. Kidnappers released Jill Carroll, an American journalist who had been held captive for nearly three months. Carroll, 28, was dropped off near an Iraqi Islamic Party office in Baghdad, Iraq's capital.

"I'm just happy to be free. I want to be with my family," Carroll said on Baghdad TV. During her captivity, Carroll appeared in three videotapes, pleading for her life. A group called the Revenge Brigades claimed responsibility for her kidnapping. They had threatened to kill Carroll. But after her release, she said that she had been "treated well."

Carroll moved to Jordan, in the Middle East, in late 2002. After the war in Iraq began in 2003, she moved to Iraq and worked for several news organizations, including the Christian Science Monitor. She was on assignment for the paper when she was kidnapped.

From his home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Carroll's dad Jim said, "We are thrilled and relieved that she has been released."

Next: Lowering the Volume