Yemen’s Houthi rebels release 5 foreign hostages

The captives were reportedly leaving Sanaa on board an Omani plane carrying a Houthi delegation to Muscat for talks with the UN envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.

SANAA // Five foreigners held hostage by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in Sanaa were released on Sunday.

Two Americans, two Saudis and a Briton were released after being detained for around six months, Yemeni and US officials said.

The White House confirmed the release of two Americans and said they had arrived safely in Oman, which helped broker the deal. It did not identify them.

However, a Houthi rebel official and a security source in Yemen had earlier said that six foreigners were being released – three Americans, two Saudis and a Briton.

They said the hostages were leaving Sanaa on an Omani aircraft carrying a Houthi delegation to Muscat for talks with the UN envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.

The Washington Post reported on Sunday that a third American hostage, a 35-year-old convert to Islam, was still being held for reasons that were unclear.

One of the released hostages was Scott Darden, an employee of a Louisiana-based logistics company Transoceanic.

“We cannot begin to express the sense of joy and relief we feel with Scott’s release. He has been safely evacuated and will be reunited with his family very soon,” said the chief executive of Transoceanic, Gregory Rusovich.

The other freed American was Sam Farran, 54, a security consultant from Michigan, according to the Post.

Their release was arranged with the help of Oman's sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said, said a spokesman for the National Security Council, which also urged immediate resumption of peace talks aimed at ending fighting in Yemen.

Oman has been involved in several cases of hostage release, highlighting its unique role as a discreet Gulf mediator.

Western nations have repeatedly called on Muscat to act as a mediator in resolving thorny regional issues – from the kidnapping of Americans and Europeans to the Iran nuclear deal.

The Saudi coalition's military spokesman Brig-Gen Ahmed Al Asiri also clarified on Sunday that "coalition forces never targeted the home of Oman's ambassador in Sanaa", reported Al Sharq Al Awsat, a daily newspaper owned by King Salman's family.

A day earlier, Oman’s foreign ministry said the ambassador’s home was targeted. The attack, they said, was “a clear violation of the charters and international norms that emphasise the inviolability of diplomatic premises”.

Gen Al Asiri said that Saturday’s air strikes had targeted the Yemeni interior ministry building, which had been turned into a military operations centre for the Houthis.

He said the coalition would welcome an investigation and suggested the house may have been hit by a Houthi mortar shell.

Meanwhile, in the western province of Ibb, the Saudi-led coalition’s air strikes against a Houthi stronghold and prison facility killed 11 people and wounded more than 50 others, security officials and witnesses said.

Sunday’s air strikes hit a security directorate where the rebels held more than 300 prisoners underground, said the officials, who remain neutral in the conflict that has splintered the country’s security forces.

Many managed to escape, but dozens remain buried under the rubble, they added.

* Agencies