US forces free hostages from Somali pirates

US Special Forces freed two hostages held by Somali pirates in a helicopter raid early on Wednesday, President Barack Obama and American military officials announced in Washington.

All nine pirates who were guarding the hostages were killed in the operation carried out on the basis of “actionable intelligence,” the US Africa Command said.

None of the unspecified number of US Navy Seals taking part in the attack were killed or injured, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said in a statement.

The two hostages — US citizen Jessica Buchanan, 32, and Danish national Poul Thisted, 60 — were airlifted unharmed to the US military base in Djibouti, officials said.

The two captives, who work for the Danish Demining Group, were seized on October 25.

“As commander-in-chief, I could not be proud of the troops who carried out this mission, and the dedicated professionals who supported their efforts,” President Obama said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The US will not tolerate the abduction of our people, and will spare no effort to secure the safety of our citizens and to bring their captors to justice”.

The two were rescued unharmed after helicopter-borne US commandos swooped in on remote scrubland in central Somalia and battled the kidnappers, killing at least eight of them, according to a local Somali official.

A Pentagon official confirmed that the unit involved was the elite Seal Team Six, which killed Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan last May.

Mr Panetta said no US troops had been wounded or killed in the operation.

“This successful hostage rescue, undertaken in a hostile environment, is a testament to the superb skills of courageous service members who risked their lives to save others,” Panetta said.

Elsewhere, Kenya must continue providing refuge to Somalis who have fled violence and hunger in their homeland, a US State Department official said on Tuesday.

“We continue to rely on and advocate strongly for the protection of Somalis inside Kenya, that they should not be sent back into Somalia in order to create some sort of a buffer zone,” declared David Robinson, acting assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration.

Mr Robinson spoke at a press briefing in Washington on the status of the food crisis in Kenya and elsewhere in the Horn.

Internal Security PS Francis Kimemia suggested that Somali refugees might be returned home soon.