LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND // Two American prisoners held captive by Yemen Houthi rebels have been released and taken to Muscat after Omani officials mediated their release.
John Kerry, the US secretary of state, speaking to reporters in the Swiss city of Lausanne on Saturday night, said that an aeroplane was sent from Muscat to the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, adding: “It secured the release of two American citizens from the Houthi”.
“Their names are not being released, but we are very pleased with that,” he said.
Oman state television broadcast footage of the two Americans disembarking from a plane belonging to Oman’s royal air force.
Yemenis wounded in the civil war in Yemen were also flown for treatment to Oman on the same plane, it reported.
A foreign ministry official told the broadcaster Oman had worked with Yemeni authorities in Sanaa to secure the Americans’ release. A Houthi official confirmed their departure from Sanaa.
The US state department expressed gratitude to the Omani government for facilitating the release and recognised the action as a “humanitarian gesture” by the Houthis.
* Reuters