Wednesday - January 25, 2012

Must Be An Election Year

U.S. military forces helicoptered into Somalia in a nighttime raid Wednesday and freed two hostages, an American and a Dane, while killing nine pirates., U.S. officials confirm.

The Danish Refugee Council also confirmed the two aid workers, American Jessica Buchanan and Dane Poul Hagan Thisted, were freed “during an operation in Somalia.”

Buchanan, 32, and Thisted, 60, had been working with a de-mining unit of the Danish Refugee Council when they were kidnapped in October.

President Obama confirmed the operation and rescue early Wednesday in a statement. He said the operation serves as yet another message to the world that the U.S. “will stand strongly against any threats to our people.”

The two aid workers appear to have been kidnapped by criminals, sometimes referred to as pirates, and not by Somalia’s Al Qaeda-linked militant group al-Shabab. As large ships at sea have increased their defenses against pirate attacks, gangs have looked for other money making opportunities like land-based kidnappings.

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. A second pirate who gave his name as Ahmed Hashi said two helicopters attacked at about 2 a.m. at the site where the hostages were being held about 12 miles north of the Somali town of Adado.

Both Buchanan and Thisted were in Somalia as part of an international effort to remove land mines from former conflict zones; they were there risking their own lives for the benefit of the local population, and the pirates/gansters kidnapped them anyway. Low hanging fruit I guess.

Please, let’s make sure that Joe Biden doesn’t find out the names and units of the soldiers involved this time, and nobody let them all get on a helicopter together with an unidentified local. That kind of sell-out is just a little too blatant to have to swallow twice.

UPDATE: More details and pictures at the UK Daily Mail (warning: contains one explicit photo of Mooch. But to be fair and balanced, not only does she look slim in it, she looks pretty darn good. And less than angry. Amazing.) All the pictures are stock other than the 2 of the captives, but this article says that 5 pirates were also captured.

from CNN:

The special forces troops took fire as they fought their way into a compound where the hostages were held, the official said, adding the troops believed that the kidnappers were shooting. The official is not authorized to speak to the media and asked not to be named.

Nine heavily armed gunmen were killed in the strike, Little said, adding that they had explosives nearby. There were no known survivors among the kidnappers, he added.

The American assault team did not suffer any injuries, the Pentagon said.
...
The U.S. raid comes nearly three years after Navy snipers killed three pirates who had taken hostage the captain of the Maersk Alabama off Somalia.

U.S. forces did not coordinate the raid with local officials, but residents welcomed the outcome as a warning to other groups to cease the kidnapping of foreigners, said Abdirahman Mohamud Farole, president of Puntland, a semiautonomous region of Somalia.

Thisted, the rescued Dane, is a senior aid worker who had been in Somalia for some time, said Olsen of the Danish Refugee Council.

Dahl said Olsen told reporters she had tried to work with local people to get the hostages released but had not succeeded.
...
Local authorities gave conflicting casualty figures after the raid. Some officials said seven gunmen were killed, but Mohamed Ahmed Aalin, president of Galmudug state, said nine were killed and five others detained by U.S. forces.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/25/2012 at 08:35 AM   
Filed Under: • Military • Pirates, aarrgh! •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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