Beaten, starved, gang-raped and 'forced to give birth to a child in captivity,' horrifying story of woman who was held hostage with her boyfriend in Somalia for 15 months

A waitress-turned-journalist has revealed her hellish tale of 15 months being held hostage by Somali terrorists where captors gang-raped her and played Russian roulette with an assault rifle.

Amanda Lindhout naively flew to the impoverished and volatile nation in 2008 at the age of 24 after convincing an ex-boyfriend to come along on the dangerous jaunt.

Miss Lindhout and Nigel Brennan, a 36-year-old Australian photographer, were kidnapped on their third day in the country.

Naive: Aspiring journalist Amanda Lindhout (left) and photographer Nigel Brennan (right) were taken hostage in Somalia in 2007

Survival: Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan smile in November 2009 after being freed following 15 months in captivity

A Somali journalist, Abdifatah Mohammed Elmi, who was working as their interpreter, was also kidnapped, but released after several months.

The couple's ensuing 15 months in captivity are described in all their horrific detail in Lindhout's memoir, A House in the Sky, out next week, according to the 

Brennan had no experience of war zones and Lindhout has spent little time in Iraq where she had been taken hostage once before.