Jill Carroll, whose face was displayed in television sets all over the world almost 3 months ago and who was thought to be killed after the deadline set by her captors expired without their demands of setting free female prisoners were met.

The 28-year-old freelance reporter who went to the Middle East in 2002 after being laid off from her job at a newspaper, was kidnapped in Baghdad on January 7 while working for the Christian Science Monitor.

Hopes of seeing her freed were dashed after her translator was killed in attack a few hundred yards away from the office of the Sunni Arab politician she was on the way to interview.

The US Embassy in Baghdad said it could not confirm the release, although the Iraqi police, the leader of the Islamic Party talked of her release and as her editor and The Christian Science Monitor’s Washington bureau chief David Cook said she was released this morning (March 30), had spoken to her father, and was in good condition.