An American aid worker, Jessica Buchanan, 32, and her Danish colleague Poul Hagen Thisted, 60, who were captured while working on a demining project in Somalia three months ago, were "on their way to be reunited with their families", according to their employers, the Danish Refugee Council.
A Western official said the rescuers and the freed hostages flew by helicopter to Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti which hosts the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, a US-led group organised under US Africa Command. Africa Command said Buchanan and Thisted were being held for ransom. The New York Times, citing Somali elders, said the gunmen had just refused US$1.5 million to let the hostages go.
Africa Command said the rescue team managed to confirm the hostages' presence in the camp before launching the assault. The mission was directed by Army General Carter Ham, head of Africa Command, from his headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. Panetta and other members of Obama's national security team monitored the mission from the White House before travelling to the Capitol for the State of the Union address. Minutes after Obama completed his speech he phoned Buchanan's father to tell him his daughter was safe.
The rescue marked an increased willingness by the US to send troops into Somalia, a lawless and dangerous country that, after 21 years without a central government, is beset by pirate gangs, rival clan militias and a powerful Islamist insurgency. US engagement with Somalia is haunted by the deaths of 19 troops in a botched mission in Mogadishu in 1993, immortalised in the film Black Hawk Down. More recently the Pentagon has used Special Forces for assassination missions and drone strikes against suspected terrorists in the country.
Witnesses in Galkayo, near where the kidnappers were, reported seeing and hearing helicopters after 2am local time and gunfire was heard a bit later. US officials said that Seal Team 6 parachuted to a site about a kilometre from where the aid workers were being held and approached on foot. They found the gang asleep after an evening chewing the narcotic khat, a Somali man told AP. He said the Seals snatched three Somalis. By dawn, the bodies of nine gang members had been brought to Galkayo. Some reports suggested as many as six gang members had been captured.
US officials "within the last week or so" had collected enough information to "connect the dots" that led Obama to authorise the mission on Tuesday, Pentagon press secretary George Little said. The captors were heavily armed and had "explosives nearby". Pentagon officials told the New York Times that a gunbattle ensued.
Little said the decision to go ahead with the rescue was prompted in part by rising concern about the medical condition of Buchanan. He said he could not be specific without violating her privacy but did say US officials had reason to believe her condition could be life-threatening. Mary Ann Olsen, an official with the DRC, said Buchanan was "not that ill" but needed medicine. Danish Foreign Minister Villy Soevndal said: "One of the hostages has a disease that was very serious and that had to be solved".
DRC head, Andreas Kamm, said he would have preferred to see the two hostages freed peacefully "but we're happy with the outcome. This is a day of joy indeed".
- Independent, AP
