UAE forces rescue British hostage in Yemen

The United Arab Emirates says its military has freed a British hostage held by al-Qaida in Yemen for 18 months.

Hammond added that the freed hostage was “safe and well” and that Britain was “very grateful for the assistance of the UAE”.

Douglas Robert Semple was being held by al Qaeda in the southern Yemen port city of Aden, WAM reported Sunday.

He said: “I’m so pleased for the family of the British hostage in Yemen – who has been released safe and well”.

The UAE has military forces in Aden and is part of a Saudi-led coalition of mostly Arab countries that has been bombing the Houthis and their allies since late March.

Following his release, Semple was flown to the UAE via a military aircraft and was received by officials at the Abu Dhabi airport.

This action by the UAE forces in Aden is renewed evidence of the UAE’s unchanging policy towards terrorism in all of its forms and manifestations.

Qatar and Saudi Arabia too have previously leveraged their power in negotiating the release of western hostages, media reports suggest.

The conflict has killed more than 1,950 civilians, wounded more than 23,000 people and pushed the already impoverished nation to the brink of starvation , according to the U.N. The group has a history of kidnapping foreigners in exchange for multi-million-dollar ransoms.

A French hostage kidnapped in the capital Sana’a in February was freed earlier this month, apparently after mediation by Oman.

The Yemen branch of al-Qaeda – known as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) – is considered by Washington to be the most unsafe of the terror group’s affiliates.

In December, US journalist Luke Somers and South African teacher Pierre Korkie died during a failed attempt by US commandos to rescue them from an Al-Qaeda hideout in southeastern Yemen. Some are thought to have been abducted by opportunistic criminals who subsequently sold them on to al Qaeda-linked militants.