Jessica Buchanan and Poul Thisted (images courtesy of Danish Refugee Council)Two foreign aid workers kidnapped in Somalia three months ago have been freed in a rare US military raid.
US officials have confirmed that elite US Navy Seals were dropped into Somalia to carry out the overnight operation which resulted in a shoot-out.
Vice-President Joe Biden told ABC News that the mission was approved because of the failing health of one of the aid workers.
The hostages - a US woman and a Danish man - were seized on 25 October.
American Jessica Buchanan, 32, and Dane Poul Thisted, 60 were freed uninjured, although nine of their captors are said to have been killed. No casualties have been reported among US forces.Health concerns
Danish Foreign Minister Villy Soevndal told Denmark's TV2 channel that one of the hostages "has a disease that was very serious and that had to be solved''.
"Jessica's health was failing," Mr Biden said, referring to Ms Buchanan. "They concluded they should go at this time. The president gave the go."
BBC Security correspondent Frank Gardner says Wednesday's rescue is the highest profile US action in Somalia since it pulled its forces out of the country in 1994.
A Pentagon official has confirmed to the BBC that the unit involved was the elite Seal Team Six, which killed Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan last May, although the same personnel were not necessarily involved.
Vice-President Joe Biden said the bravery of the special operations team "takes your breath away"
Seal Team Six suffered heavy losses last August in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan which killed 38 people.
US officials said the Somali kidnappers were "criminals" rather than Islamist al-Shabab militants.
More than 150 people are still being held hostage in Somalia - mostly sailors from ships seized for ransom by pirates.
They include a UK tourist, two Spanish medics and a Kenyan driver who were abducted in neighbouring Kenya.
Kenya blames al-Shabab for those kidnappings, but the group denies any involvement.
In recent months, the US has stepped up drone and naval attacks in Somalia, where the al-Qaeda-linked Islamist group controls much of the south and central regions.
A US special operations team killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, one of the most senior leaders of al-Qaeda's East Africa cell, inside Somalia in 2009.'One hour on ground'
At the time of the raid, American Jessica Buchanan, 32, and Dane Poul Thisted, 60, were being kept about 40km (25 miles) east of the town of Adado and 100km south of Galkayo.
Barack Obama told Jessica Buchanan's father of the rescueA US official said the Seals parachuted from a plane into an area near the compound where they were being held.
Shots had been fired as the team approached the compound, but there were no US casualties.
The rescue team was on the ground for about an hour and the raid was over by 03:00 (24:00 GMT).
The freed hostages and the Seals left the area by helicopter for the nearby tiny Horn of Africa state of Djibouti, where the US has a military presence.
They were taken to Camp Lemonnier - where about 2,500 personnel are based as well as armour, fighters and drones.
The two had been working for the Danish Demining Group, part of the Danish Refugee Council, when they were abducted by gunmen near the north-central town of Galkayo.
"We are so relieved and so happy that Paul and Jessica are safe," Andreas Kamm, secretary general of the Danish Refugee Council, told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.
He said no-one from the group had yet spoken to the pair.'Message to world'
Correspondents say that following the 1993 killing in Mogadishu of 19 US soldiers and the wounding of 70 others, there has been no appetite for full-scale US ground operations in Somalia.
The country has been wracked by two decades of conflict and lawlessness, and has not had a functioning central government since 1991.
The current UN-backed interim government controls the capital, Mogadishu, thanks to the efforts of a 12,000-strong African Union force.
In a statement, US President Barack Obama said he had personally authorised the mission on Monday and that it constituted "another message to the world that the United States of America will stand strongly against any threats to our people".
The BBC's Steve Kingstone in Washington said the first hint of the successful operation appeared to come from President Obama himself - as he prepared to give the State of the Union address, he turned to his Defence Secretary Leon Panetta and said "Good job tonight."
In his annual address, the US president praised the US Navy Seals team who killed al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in a raid in Pakistan in May 2011.
Somalia - Failed State
Is al-Shabab on the back foot?
Window of hope
Somalis hit the beach
Islamists and famine
Is al-Shabab on the back foot?
Window of hope
Somalis hit the beach
Islamists and famine
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