Bi hostage rescue team pay9/1/2023 “The soldiers were calling on the house’s inhabitants to surrender and the speaker was clearly a Yemeni soldier,” he added.Īnother witness, named Abdullah, said the Yemeni army had blocked access to the area before the raid began. ![]() “Before the gunshots were heard, very strong floodlights turned the night into daylight, and then we heard loud explosions,” Jamal told Reuters. forces alone, but Yemen’s government and local residents said Yemeni forces also participated. officials have said the raid was carried out by U.S. Yemen’s government said on Saturday the hostages were being held in the house of a man named Saeed al-Daghari.Īs special forces battled al Qaeda militants in the house, kidnappers in another building nearby shot the two hostages, a local man who identified himself as Jamal said. Several of those said by militants to have died were from the Daghari and Awlaki families, important tribes in Shabwa province. The commander, identified as Jamal Mubarak al-Hard al-Daghari al-Awlaki, appeared to be the same person as Mubarak al-Harad, named by the Yemen Defence Ministry on Saturday as the leader of an AQAP group. ![]() Six other members of the same tribe also died, the reports said, although they could not be immediately verified. The South African government said Korkie’s body was expected in South Africa on Monday.Īpart from the woman and the boy, reports on social media feeds of known militants said an AQAP commander and two members of the group were killed. The group had expected Korkie to be freed on Sunday. No ransom was paid for Korkie as his kidnappers eventually relented on an earlier demand for $3 million, Gift of the Givers, the relief group that had tried to secure his release, said. However, since Islamic State in Syria and Iraq began distributing films of its militants beheading Western hostages, the focus on AQAP, which has traditionally used hostage-taking as a way to raise funds, had diminished until now.Īt least two more hostages are being held by the group. Western governments fear advances by Shi’ite Muslim Houthi fighters with links to Iran have bolstered support among Yemeni Sunnis for AQAP, which has established itself in parts of Yemen, including Shabwa where the raid took place. officials said.ĪQAP, formed in 2006 by the merger of the Yemeni and Saudi branches of the network, has for years been seen by Washington as one of the movement’s most dangerous branches. ![]() special forces raided the village of Dafaar in Shabwa province, a militant stronghold in southern Yemen, shortly after midnight on Saturday, killing several members of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).Īmerican journalist Luke Somers, 33, and South African teacher Pierre Korkie, 56, were shot and killed by their captors during the raid intended to free them, U.S.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |