Former hostage Jill Carroll returned to the United States Sunday, telling a reporter she felt "alive again" after spending 82 days in captivity in Iraq.

The 28-year-old freelance journalist landed in Boston at midday on a commercial flight. She declined to speak to reporters during the trip, only making an exception for a colleague at the Christian Science Monitor where she works.

"I finally feel like I am alive again," Carroll told the newspaper. "I feel so good to be able to step outside anytime, to feel the sun directly on your face — to see the whole sky.

These are luxuries that we just don't appreciate every day."

She also saw pictures of her family during the flight, and kissed a photograph of her father, Jim Carroll. "He looks good," the newspaper quoted her as saying.

Carroll was released Thursday, nearly three months after gunmen took her hostage Jan. 7 in western Baghdad and killed her Iraqi translator.

On Saturday, Carroll said her kidnappers forced her to record statements in captivity speaking out against the U.S. military presence in Iraq.

She said she was threatened many times by her captors, who released the video on an Islamic website after her release Thursday.

"Tens of thousands ... have lost their lives here because of the occupation," she said in the video. "I think Americans need to think about that and realize day-to-day how difficult life is here."

The insurgents were "only trying to defend their country ... to stop an illegal and dangerous and deadly occupation," she said.

The videos have sparked some criticism from some, particularly on Internet web logs.

Carroll landed at an air base in Germany Saturday aboard a U.S. military plane. She was not wearing the Islamic headscarf she wore as a hostage.

Carroll provided her editor with a statement that disavowed the messages she recorded on the video.

"During my last night in captivity, my captors forced me to participate in a propaganda video," her editor read.

"They told me I would be released if I co-operated. I was living in a threatening environment, under their control and wanted to go home alive ... so I agreed."

"Things that I was forced to say while captive are now being taken by some as an accurate reflection of my personal views. They are not," her statement said.

'I'm happy to be here.'

After Carroll's captors dropped her off at the offices of the Iraqi Islamic Party, she said her captors never threatened her.

"At any rate, fearing retribution from my captors, I did not speak freely. Out of fear I said I wasn't threatened," she said.

Her editor said three men pointed guns at Carroll's head while she was forced to record the statements.

After her arrival in Germany, Carroll told Col. Kurt Lohide, "I'm happy to be here."

On Thursday, her captors dropped her off at the offices of the Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni organization.

The U.S. military took her to the Green Zone, the heavily fortified area in central Baghdad. She was reportedly reluctant about entering the green zone because her captors said insurgents had infiltrated it and would kill her.

On Friday, Carroll's captors said they released her because "the American government met some of our demands by releasing some of our women from prison."

The group, which called itself the Revenge Brigades, had demanded the release of all female detainees in Iraq by Feb. 26.

While the U.S. did release some women, it claimed the releases had nothing to do with the kidnappers' demands. The U.S. is still holding four female Iraqi prisoners.

Insurgents are still holding more than 40 foreigners hostage in Iraq, says the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

On March 22, soldiers rescued two Canadians -- Jim Loney and Harmeet Singh Sooden -- and Briton Norman Kember after almost four months in captivity.

With files from Associated Press