Obama praises special forces after night-time operation to release a US national and a Dane kidnapped by pirates
US military forces have freed an American and a Danish hostage after a gun battle with pirates during a night-time helicopter raid in Somalia.
Nine pirates were killed during the rescue operation by US special forces, which was praised by President Barack Obama.
He said: "As commander-in-chief, I could not be prouder of the troops who carried out this mission and the dedicated professionals who supported their efforts." He said the mission was "yet another message to the world that the United States of America will stand strongly against any threats to our people".
The US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, said the two aid workers, Jessica Buchanan, an American, and the Dane, Poul Hagen Thisted, "have been transported to a safe location where we will evaluate their health and make arrangements for them to return home".
Panetta said the two hostages were unharmed after the operation, in which there were no US casualties.
The Danish Refugee Council earlier confirmed that the two aid workers had been freed. Buchanan, 32, and Thisted, 60, were working with a de-mining unit of the Danish Refugee Council when they were kidnapped in October.
A pirate who gave his name as Bile Hussein quoted other pirates at the scene of the raid as saying nine pirates had been killed in the raid, and three were missing. He said the raid had been very quick, and had caught the guards as they were sleeping, having chewed the narcotic leaf qat for much of the evening. Qat is a stimulant but users often sleep heavily after hours of chewing.
A second pirate, who gave his name as Ahmed Hashi, said two helicopters attacked the site where the hostages were being held at about 2am, 12 miles north of the town of Adado.
Obama seemed to refer to the mission before his state of the union address in Washington. As he entered the House chamber in the US Capitol, he pointed at Panetta in the crowd and said: "Good job tonight."
A western official said the helicopters and the hostages had flown to Camp Lemonnier, a US base in Djibouti. The Danish Refugee Council had been trying to work with Somali elders to win the hostages' freedom, but without success.
The timing of the raid may have been made more urgent by a medical condition. "One of the hostages has a disease that was very serious and that had to be solved," the Danish foreign minister, Villy Soevndal, told Denmark's TV2 channel. Soevndal, who had been informed of the action, congratulated the Americans on the successful raid.
Panetta visited Camp Lemonnier just over a month ago. A key US ally in the region, Djibouti has the only US base in sub-Saharan Africa. It hosts the military's Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa.
The Danish Refugee Council said the two former hostages were on their way home to be reunited with their families.
Ann Mary Olsen, the head of the council's international department, informed Thisted's family of the successful military operation. "They were very happy and incredibly relieved that it is over," she said.
The two aid workers appear to have been kidnapped by pirates rather than by Somalia's al-Qaida-linked militant group, al-Shabab. As large ships at sea have increased their defences against pirate attacks, gangs have looked for other money-making opportunities, such as land-based kidnappings.
Mohamud Sahal, an elder in the town of Galkayo, said: "We are really happy with the successful release of the innocents kidnapped by evildoers.
"They were guests who were treated brutally. That was against Islam and our culture … These men [the pirates] have spoiled our good customs and culture, so Somalis should fight back."
The pair was seized in October from the portion of Galkayo that is under the control of a government-allied clan militia. The aid agency has said Somalis held demonstrations demanding the pair's quick release.
Their Somali colleague was detained by police on suspicion of being involved in their kidnapping.
The two hostages had been working in northern Somalia for a Danish de-mining group, whose experts have been clearing mines and unexploded ordnance in conflict zones in Africa and the Middle East.
Several hostages are still being held in the country, including a British tourist and two Spanish doctors seized from neighbouring Kenya and an American journalist kidnapped on Saturday.