Hostages rescued

British-led forces rescued three Christian peace activists from captivity yesterday after finding them tied up in a house in western Baghdad, two weeks after their American colleague was killed.

The two Canadians and a Briton, seized in November, were alone in the house. No shots were fired in the operation, which was swiftly mounted after a suspect detained on Wednesday night revealed their location, a US general in Baghdad said.

News of the release emerged as a suicide car bomber blew himself up outside the headquarters of the Iraqi police's major crimes unit in Baghdad, killing 25 people and wounding 35 in one of the worst attacks on police in recent months.

A car bomb targeting a police patrol in a busy market in south-western Baghdad killed seven people several hours later.

The violence has underlined increasingly urgent calls by Washington for politicians to end a deadlock that has stalled formation of a unity government three months after elections.

Officials said party leaders would gather tomorrow after a break for holidays of several days to resume negotiations.

"It's great to be free," Briton Norman Kember, 74, said after British and other forces freed him and Canadian fellow-hostages Jim Loney, 41, and Harmeet Sooden, 32.

The tortured body of another activist, American Tom Fox, was found dumped in the capital two weeks ago.

A British embassy official said the three men were in "good shape" in the embassy. Mr Kember was "happy and relaxing".

US military spokesman Major General Rick Lynch said two people had been detained during an operation on Wednesday night, one of whom then gave crucial information that led to the raid being mounted at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT).

"It was three hours between when we got the information and when we released the hostages," Mr Lynch said.

The men were found in a room in a house in west Baghdad, a Sunni insurgent stronghold. There was no sign of their captors. Mr Lynch said they appeared to be victims of a "kidnapping cell that has been robust over the past several months".

A British military spokesman, Wing Commander Tony Radcliffe, said the trio's release was part of "an ongoing operation related to hostages".

Residents in the Abu Ghraib area, where the Iraqi Interior Ministry said the captives were found, reported sporadic heavy gunfire throughout the day.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said a multinational force spearheaded by British troops had executed the operation.

"It was several weeks in the planning," British Defence Secretary John Reid said.

Many of the casualties in yesterday's suicide car bombing at the police headquarters in Baghdad were policemen, the Interior Ministry said. It said the bomber blew himself up after stopping at an outer checkpoint to have his car checked for explosives.

Several hours later a car bomb exploded in a market close to a Shi'ite mosque in the capital's southwestern district of Shurta al-Khamisa, killing seven people and wounding 10. Police said it had targeted a passing police patrol.

Sunni Arab insurgents fighting the US-backed government stage daily attacks on Iraqi security forces, ambushing police and army patrols with car bombs and makeshift explosives.

The freed hostages were seized along with their American colleague Fox while driving in a part of western Baghdad known as a haven for Sunni Arab rebels on November 26.