http://www.losandes.com.ar/notas/2012/1/26/comando-mato-laden-rescato-rehenes-620348.asp
Agencia AP
--- merged: Jan 26, 2012 4:23 PM ---
Alguien tiene más info sobre esta operación?
Saludos.
--- merged: Jan 26, 2012 4:27 PM ---
http://www.twincities.com/news/ci_19822492?source=rss
Navy SEAL team rescues hostages from Somali pirates
Poul Hagen Thisted were kidnapped by two truckloads of gunmen as they headed to the airport in Galkayo, a central Somalia town on the edge of pirate territory.
El comando que mató a Bin Laden rescató a dos rehenes
El grupo SEAL se lanzó en paracaídas sobre piratas somalíes, matando a 9 de ellos y salvando a un danés y una estadounidense.
Los marines de SEAL, superentrenados y con armas sofisticadas. (AP)
El mismo comando de fuerzas especiales de la Armada estadounidense que mató a Osama Bin Laden se lanzó en paracaídas durante la noche de ayer sobre un campamento de Somalia donde una estadounidense y un dinamarqués estaban cautivos y, en minutos, nueve secuestradores estaban muertos y ambos rehenes habían sido liberados.
El presidente Barack Obama autorizó la misión del Equipo Seis del comando SEAL dos días antes. Momentos después de pronunciar su mensaje anual a la nación ante el Congreso (ver nota principal), Obama habló por teléfono con el padre de la secuestrada para informarle que su hija estaba a salvo.
El Consejo Dinamarqués para Refugiados confirmó que sus dos trabajadores, la estadounidense Jessica Buchanan y el dinamarqués Poul Hagen Thisted, estaban "camino de reunirse con sus familias".
Buchanan, de 32 años y Thisted, de 60, trabajaban con una unidad de desminado del Consejo cuando pistoleros armados los secuestraron en octubre.
Los comandos llegaron rápidamente y tomaron por sorpresa a los guardias, que estaban durmiendo después de haber mascado la hoja narcótica qat durante buena parte de la tarde, contó un pirata desertor que dijo llamarse Bile Hussein.
Agregó que no estaba presente en el lugar, pero que había hablado con otros que estuvieron y le dijeron que nueve piratas habían muerto y a otros tres "se los llevaron".
Un funcionario estadounidense confirmó versiones de prensa de que los SEAL bajaron en paracaídas en el lugar. Agregó que la misión fue realizada por el mismo comando que mató al líder de al-Qaeda, Bin Laden, en Paquistán en mayo. Esta incursión ocurrió cerca del pueblo somalí de Adado.
Los datos de inteligencia indicaron la semana pasada que la salud de la joven Buchanan se estaba "deteriorando rápidamente", de modo que Obama encomendó a su equipo desarrollar un plan de rescate.
"Como comandante en jefe, no podría estar más orgulloso por los efectivos que llevaron a cabo esta misión y los profesionales dedicados que apoyaron sus esfuerzos", declaró Obama. "Estados Unidos no tolerará el secuestro de nuestra gente y no escatimará esfuerzo para garantizar la seguridad de nuestros ciudadanos y de llevar a sus captores ante la justicia", agregó.
Un funcionario occidental dijo que los comandos y los liberados fueron trasladados en helicóptero a una base militar estadounidense en la nación africana de Yibuti, llamada Campamento Lemonnier.
Alguien tiene más info sobre esta operación?
Saludos.
--- merged: Jan 26, 2012 4:27 PM ---
http://www.twincities.com/news/ci_19822492?source=rss
Navy SEAL team rescues hostages from Somali pirates
By Jeffrey Gettleman, Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker
New York Times
Posted: 01/25/2012 12:01:00 AM CST
Updated: 01/25 11:39:22 PM
Dane Poul Hagen Thisted, left, and American Jessica Buchanan were freed Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. ( Associated Press)
KHARTOUM, Sudan - It was about 2 a.m. Wednesday when elders in the Somali village of Galkayo heard an unusual sound: the whirl of helicopters.
It was the culmination of a daring and risky mission by about two dozen members of the Navy SEALs to rescue two hostages - a U.S. aid worker and her Danish colleague - held by Somali pirates since October.
The commandos had dropped down in parachutes under a cloak of darkness. The commandos hiked two miles from where they landed, grabbed the hostages and flew them to safety.
The mission was characterized by the same ruthless efficiency as the raid on Osama bin Laden in May, which was carried out by commandos from the same elite unit. Nine Somali gunmen were killed; not a single
Shortly after his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, President Barack Obama, with first lady Michelle Obama, tells John Buchanan that a Navy SEALs team had rescued his daughter Jessica from Somali pirates. (AP Photo/Pete Souza, White House)
member of the SEALs was hurt.One local pirate who seemed to have detailed information about the raid said it involved "an electrical net-trap, flattened into the land," which presumably was the parachute.
"Then they started launching missiles," said the pirate, who spoke by telephone and asked not to be identified.
Pirates operate with impunity in many parts of lawless Somalia, which has languished without a functioning government for more than 20 years. As naval efforts have intensified on the seas, stymieing hijackings, Somali pirates seem to be increasingly snatching foreigners on land. Just last week, pirates grabbed another U.S. hostage not far from where the SEALs raid took place.
U.S. officials said they were moved to
strike in this case because they had received "actionable intelligence" that the health of Jessica Buchanan, the U.S. aid worker, was rapidly deteriorating.The gunmen had just refused $1.5 million to let the two hostages go, Somali elders said, and ransom negotiations had ground to a halt.
Somali pirates have held hostages for months, often in punishing conditions with little food, water or shelter. Past ransoms have topped more than $10 million. One British couple sailing around the world was kidnapped by pirates from this same patch of central Somalia and held in captivity for more than a year.
Pentagon officials said President Barack Obama personally approved the rescue plan and raid.
They said Obama had called several high-level meetings on the case, because the aid workers had been kidnapped by gunmen whom Somali elders said were part of a well-established pirate gang.
As the SEALs team swooped in for the rescue, Obama was preparing to deliver his State of the Union address Tuesday night 8,000 miles away.
"As commander in chief, I could not be prouder of the troops who carried out this mission," he said Wednesday. "The United States will not tolerate the abduction of our people."
On Oct. 25, Buchanan and
The two were working for the Danish Refugee Council, one of the few Western organizations still operating in that area. They had just finished a workshop on land mines right before they were kidnapped.
Buchanan, 32, has been working in Africa for about five years and "could hardly talk about Africa without tears in her eyes," said Don Meyer, president of Valley Forge Christian College in Phoenixville, Pa., which Buchanan attended.
Somali officials immediately suspected that a local employee of the Danish aid group had tipped off the gunmen, although U.S. officials argued that the kidnappers were criminals with no direct links to any of the pirate bands that have attacked shipping lanes off Somalia.
According to Pentagon officials, shots rang out within minutes of the SEALs team's reaching the pirate encampment in Hiimo Gaabo, south of Galkayo.
Local officials said several of the gunmen were captured, and the pirate who spoke by telephone said five were seized. But Pentagon officials said none was taken.
Several elders said they were pleased with the rescue operation. They blamed Somalia's pirate gangs for sullying Somalia's reputation and causing inflation by carelessly spending millions of dollars of ransom money.
"The pirates are not taking our advice or orders," one elder said Wednesday. "They are outlawed, and they are only making our image look bad."
Somali elders have been trying to mediate in hostage situations, and a team had just returned from trying to secure the release of another American, freelance journalist Michael Scott Moore, who was kidnapped last week in Galkayo.
He remains in captivity in Hobyo, a pirate den on the Somali coast, because the pirates holding him refuse to let him go without a ransom.
At 6:43 p.m. Tuesday, as Obama put the finishing touches on his State of the Union address, he was told that the two hostages were safely in U.S. hands.
As he stepped into the House chamber to deliver his speech, he looked at Defense Secretary Leon Panetta standing in the crowd and said, "Leon, good job tonight, good job."
At 10:32 p.m., after the speech, Obama called John Buchanan, Jessica's father, and informed him that his daughter was safe.
