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A daring raid in Somalia, and an American and a Danish hostage are on way home

 
After the State of the Union address Tuesday, President Barack Obama, with first lady Michelle, tells John Buchanan that his daughter is safe.
After the State of the Union address Tuesday, President Barack Obama, with first lady Michelle, tells John Buchanan that his daughter is safe.
Published Jan. 26, 2012

MOGADISHU, Somalia — The Navy SEALs parachuted into the darkness, landing more than a mile from their objective: a small bush camp in north-central Somalia where an American aid worker and a Danish colleague were being held captive.

The dozen or so commandos shed their chutes and moved quietly through the brush.

The compound had been under secret U.S. surveillance for weeks after an intelligence tip had signaled the whereabouts of the hostages, 32-year-old Ohio native Jessica Buchanan and 60-year-old Poul Thisted.

But investigators believed that Buchanan's health was failing and that she might suffer kidney failure. About 2 a.m. Wednesday, the SEALs stormed the kidnappers' compound. In the ensuing firefight, they killed nine people and rescued the pair without injury.

The hostages and SEALs were picked up by helicopters, which flew to an airstrip at the Somali town of Galkayo, 60 miles north of the encampment. There the hostages were transferred to a U.S. military plane and flown to Djibouti.

Pentagon officials defended the decision to kill the hostage takers, arguing that they were armed and that explosives were found at the camp. The SEALs could have taken prisoners, but they were operating under rules of engagement that permitted use of deadly force if their lives or those of the hostages were threatened.

The dramatic rescue was made by members of the same SEAL Team Six unit that killed Osama bin Laden in his Pakistan hideout in May.

An armed gang abducted Buchanan and Thisted in October in Galkayo, a bustling city of half a million people. The two were working for the Danish Refugee Council, a humanitarian aid group that helps clear minefields, aids maimed victims and assists refugees.

U.S. investigators concluded early on that the men who kidnapped Buchanan and Thisted were criminals trying to make money from ransom, not pirates or militants from Shabab, an Islamic group that has carried out a violent campaign against the weak transitional government in Mogadishu, the capital. At first, there were promising signs that the hostages' ordeal might be short. Local clan leaders denounced the abduction, and supporters organized demonstrations demanding their freedom. FBI agents investigating the kidnapping of the U.S. citizen were cautiously optimistic.

A team of hostage negotiators based out of the FBI's New York field office advised Buchanan's family and officials from the Danish Refugee Council, who had made contact with the kidnappers via sympathetic Somali clan leaders.

But the negotiations came to nought. Then in mid-January, the FBI received intelligence that the aid workers were under guard near the village of Hiimo Gaabo, 60 miles south of Galkayo.

Thisted, who had studied anthropology and education in Denmark, had worked in East Africa for more than a decade and had managed explosives safety programs in Somalia for the nonprofit group since 2009.

Buchanan grew up in Cincinnati and first went to Africa in 2007 as a student teacher for the Rosslyn Academy, a private Christian elementary and high school in Nairobi, Kenya. She decided to stay for two years teaching fourth grade, said Dan King, the U.S. manager for the Kenyan school.

Buchanan left the relative safety of Nairobi and began working on land mine education programs in Somalia in May 2010.

"She could hardly talk about Africa without tears in her eyes," said Don Meyer, president of Valley Forge Christian College in Phoenixville, Pa., where Buchanan had studied early education. "This was a deep sense of calling."

In Washington, the case was drawing high-level interest. Shortly after the kidnapping, John O. Brennan, the White House deputy national security adviser, met with Denmark's justice minister, Morten Boedskov. President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta received regular updates on the latest intelligence.

After learning of Buchanan's declining health, aides told Obama that a rescue operation might be necessary, and the president ordered planning for a rescue, McClatchy Tribune reported, citing Pentagon officials.

On Saturday, top national security officials held a videoconference to discuss the mission, followed by another meeting Monday evening. Later that night, Obama gave the final approval for the operation.

Obama appeared to refer to the mission just before the State of the Union address Tuesday night when he pointed at Defense Secretary Panetta and said, "Good job tonight. Good job."

After returning to the White House, he called Buchanan's father and "told him that all Americans have Jessica in our thoughts and prayers" and that she "will soon be reunited with her family," according to a White House statement.