U.S. military raid in Somalia frees American, Dane
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) U.S. Navy SEALs 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 Obama himself authorized the mission 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.
"As Commander-in-Chief, I could not be prouder of the troops who carried out this mission, and the dedicated professionals who supported their efforts," Obama said in a statement released by the White House.
The Danish Refugee Council confirmed that the two aid workers, American Jessica Buchanan and Dane Poul Hagen Thisted, were "on their way to be reunited with their families."
Buchanan, 32, and Thisted, 60, were working with a de-mining unit of the Danish Refugee Council when gunmen kidnapped the two in October.
A pirate who gave his name as Bile Hussein told the Associated Press he had spoken to pirates at the scene of the raid and they reported that nine pirates had been killed and three were "taken away," which could mean they were captured by U.S. troops. He said the raid caught the guards as they were sleeping after having chewed the narcotic leaf qat for much of the evening.
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) U.S. Navy SEALs 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 Obama himself authorized the mission 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.
"As Commander-in-Chief, I could not be prouder of the troops who carried out this mission, and the dedicated professionals who supported their efforts," Obama said in a statement released by the White House.
The Danish Refugee Council confirmed that the two aid workers, American Jessica Buchanan and Dane Poul Hagen Thisted, were "on their way to be reunited with their families."
Buchanan, 32, and Thisted, 60, were working with a de-mining unit of the Danish Refugee Council when gunmen kidnapped the two in October.
A pirate who gave his name as Bile Hussein told the Associated Press he had spoken to pirates at the scene of the raid and they reported that nine pirates had been killed and three were "taken away," which could mean they were captured by U.S. troops. He said the raid caught the guards as they were sleeping after having chewed the narcotic leaf qat for much of the evening.
