Former Iraq Hostage Breaks Her Silence

Aug. 13, 2006 — -- For the first time since she was released by Iraqi insurgents, freelance writer Jill Carroll is speaking out about her 82 days in captivity, saying the entire time she was "terrified" as she felt at any moment her captors could come in and blow her head off.

In an exclusive interview with her employer, The Christian Science Monitor, provided first to ABC News, she describes the moment on Jan. 7 when she was kidnapped on the street in Baghdad.

Armed insurgents stormed her car and killed her friend and translator, Allan Enwiya, 32, right before her eyes.

"I was bending down and kind of being shoved over, I was looking out at the crack of the door. … I saw Allan was there, and I saw them kill Allan," she said. "Then, they got in the car, and we drove off. They were screaming, 'Jihad, Jihad, Jihad!' They were overjoyed, like they had won the lottery."

For full coverage of Jill Carroll's story visit www.csmonitor.com

When the incident occurred, the 28-year-old and her translator were going to interview a Sunni politician in a neighborhood deemed safe enough for a visit.

"There was a handful of what Western journalists considered no-go neighborhoods in Baghdad -- his office wasn't in that category yet," Carroll said. "I was dressed in a black hijab that hid my hair and Western clothes. We'd been to Mr. Dulaimi's office several times before without a problem. Our last trip had been two days earlier to set up this interview.

"In retrospect, that was a fatal mistake; we had given someone 48 hours to prepare for our return," she said.

When Carroll and her Iraqi translator arrived for their last interview together in Baghdad, they were told the politician was not available and were asked to return a few hours later. When they got into their car, their driver began to pull away but they were stopped abruptly.

"Suddenly a large blue truck with red and yellow trim backed out of a driveway in front of us, completely blocking the road. Several men were standing around it, motioning to help it back out," she said. "But in an instant they turned, trained pistols on us, and briskly approached the car. … It was a routine we had become familiar with in Baghdad, where private security details often brandish weapons to clear a path for their clients."