Captors free U.S. hostage after 5 years

DAMASCUS Fundamentalist Muslim kidnappers freed American JosephCicippio today, and the long agony of Western hostages seemed closeto an end.

Two Americans, journalist Terry Anderson and academic AlannSteen, are expected to be released within a week.

Iran, which has ties with the kidnappers, said a UN-mediated "noreprisals" deal had been reached and Germans Heinrich Struebig andThomas Kemptner will be freed soon, too.

Cicippio, 61, emerged from more than five years in captivitylooking thin and weary. He told reporters his kidnappers had rushedhim to a hospital two months ago for stomach surgery.

Cicippio, deputy comptroller of the American University inBeirut, was threatened three times with execution by his captors.

"I am happy it's all over and I would like to put it all behindme," he said. "I would like to get on to the first day of my newlife."

He was reunited with his wife, Elham, and her mother at the homeof the U.S. ambassador to Syria, Christopher Ross.

A U.S. military plane later took off with Cicippio and his wife,bound for the U.S. military hospital in Wiesbaden, Germany, that hasbeen a routine stopping point for newly released American hostages.

Cicippio's sons, David and Eric; his brother, Thomas, andThomas' wife, Frances, were scheduled to leave Philadelphia forGermany later today.

UN hostage mediator Giandomenico Picco made a rare publicappearance when Cicippio was handed over at the Syrian ForeignMinistry.

Picco has been slipping in and out of Middle East capitals forfour months to arrange a swap of Western hostages and other captives.

His mission may be nearly finished, according to statements fromthe kidnappers and governments ranging from Iran to Israel.

The United Nations itself is more cautious. A statement Sundaynight spoke of "important progress" and of a pledge made to Picco.

Iran, where an Islamic revolution fostered the anti-Westernpassions behind the Lebanese kidnappings, says a comprehensiveagreement, including promises that hostages' nations would notretaliate against the kidnappers, was reached in Damascus Saturdaynight.

Picco's mission began in August when freed Briton John McCarthyand American Edward Tracy asked UN Secretary-General Javier Perez deCuellar to mediate a general exchange.

Since then, Americans Jesse Turner and Thomas Sutherland andBritons Jack Mann and Terry Waite have been released, and Israel hasfreed 91 Arab prisoners.