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Baghdad: A group of at least 40 university students kidnapped at gunpoint near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul have been freed, police said on Sunday.
The kidnapping on Sunday was one of the biggest mass abductions in Iraq since 2003, police said.
"The kidnapped students have been freed by the Iraqi army and police," said Brigadier-General Khalid Abdul-Sattar.
Earlier, he said 42 male university students had been seized. He later said the total number of students captured had been 40.
Abdul-Sattar gave no details of the operation to free the students, who were heading to university in Mosul when gunmen stopped the bus carrying them.
Police said the gunmen tried to stop two buses. The first bus was able to escape, but the second was stopped. The gunmen reportedly kidnapped the male students and left behind three female students.
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