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Navy SEAL Team 6 Strikes Again: Somalia Hostage Rescue

by NowPublic Staff | January 25, 2012 at 09:24 am

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2 Hostages Rescued by Navy SEAL Team 6 in Somalia

Navy SEALs rescued two relief workers in northern Somalia when they were kidnapped in October 2011. At 2am local time on January 25, they were rescued in a secret operation that left nine kidnappers dead and several more wounded.

The rescuers: Navy SEAL Team Six, the same team that killed Osama bin Laden.

US officials described the kidnappers as "common criminals", as opposed to members of a politicized group. Somalia has no functional government, which has made it a free-for-all for warlords and professional pirates, and a nightmare for people just trying to get by.

The rescued hostages were Jessica Buchanan, 32-year-old American; and Poul Thisted, a 6-year-old Dane. The two were working for the Danish Refugee Council on a project to dig up landmines when they were kidnapped on October 25. Also kidnapped was a Somali aid worker, who was not mentioned in the report: he may have been killed, or left behind, or not have present at the rescue site.

The Navy SEALs brought the freed hostages back to a US military base in Djibouti (see map below). The Pentagon did not mention whether or not Navy SEAL Team Six brought a dog with them.

SEAL Team Six struck right around the time of Obama's State of the Union address. Was this the context in which Obama congratulated US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta during the speech broadcast, and in which Obama mentioned DEVGRU in the closing of the speech? Politically, it was worth reminding the viewing public about the bin Laden mission, but that moment in the speech will be revisited by pundits any moment now.

The bin Laden mission was conducted around the time of the White House Press Correspondents Dinner.

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