US forces rescue 2 hostages from pirates
Source: Agencies |
January 26, 2012, Thursday
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Print Edition
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THE same US Navy SEAL unit that killed Osama bin Laden parachuted into Somalia under cover of darkness early Wednesday and crept up to an outdoor camp where an American woman and Danish man were being held hostage. Soon, nine kidnappers were dead and both hostages were freed.
President Barack Obama authorized the mission by SEAL Team 6 two days earlier, and minutes after he gave his State of the Union address to Congress he was on the phone with the American's father to tell him his daughter was safe.
The Danish Refugee Council confirmed that the two aid workers, American Jessica Buchanan and Dane Poul Hagen Thisted, were freed and "are on their way to be reunited with their families." Buchanan, 32, and Thisted, 60, had been working with a de-mining unit of the Danish Refugee Council when they were kidnapped in October.
A pirate who gave his name as Bile Hussein said he had spoken to pirates at the scene of the raid and they reported that nine pirates had been killed and three were missing. He said the raid was very quick and caught the guards as they were sleeping after having chewed the narcotic leaf qat for much of the evening. Qat is a stimulant but users often sleep heavily after hours of chewing.
A second pirate who gave his name as Ahmed Hashi said two helicopters attacked at about 2am about 20 kilometers north of the Somali town of Adado where the hostages were being held.
The US military's Africa Command, based in Stuttgart, Germany, confirmed that nine kidnappers were killed.
President Barack Obama authorized the mission by SEAL Team 6 two days earlier, and minutes after he gave his State of the Union address to Congress he was on the phone with the American's father to tell him his daughter was safe.
The Danish Refugee Council confirmed that the two aid workers, American Jessica Buchanan and Dane Poul Hagen Thisted, were freed and "are on their way to be reunited with their families." Buchanan, 32, and Thisted, 60, had been working with a de-mining unit of the Danish Refugee Council when they were kidnapped in October.
A pirate who gave his name as Bile Hussein said he had spoken to pirates at the scene of the raid and they reported that nine pirates had been killed and three were missing. He said the raid was very quick and caught the guards as they were sleeping after having chewed the narcotic leaf qat for much of the evening. Qat is a stimulant but users often sleep heavily after hours of chewing.
A second pirate who gave his name as Ahmed Hashi said two helicopters attacked at about 2am about 20 kilometers north of the Somali town of Adado where the hostages were being held.
The US military's Africa Command, based in Stuttgart, Germany, confirmed that nine kidnappers were killed.
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