British oil worker freed in Yemen

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – The United Arab Emirates said Sunday that its military freed a British hostage who was kidnapped 18 months ago by al-Qaida in Yemen, which has expanded its reach amid fighting between Shiite rebels and their opponents.

A British national being held hostage in Yemen has been released after a military intelligence operation, the Foreign Office has said.

He added, the British national, an oil industry worker in his 60s, is safe and well, and is receiving support from British government officials.

The UAE’s assistance also covers power supply, healthcare, water and sewage services, and fuel and other relief materials.

Al-Qaeda militants took control of a western district of Yemen’s main port city of Aden over the weekend, residents said yesterday, in another sign that the group is drawing strength from five months of civil war.

Mr Semple was greeted in Abu Dhabi by the British Ambassador to the UAE, Philip Parham.

Semple is said to have been working on a project in Hadramawt province when he was abducted by armed men in the early hours of 3 February, 2014.

Kidnapping has long been rife in Yemen, which has been wracked by conflict since March, when a Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes against Iran-backed Huthi rebels.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, called UK Prime Minister David Cameron on Saturday night to share the news of his rescue, the news agency said.

The entrance of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula into Aden, once one of the world’s busiest ports and the most secular and secure parts of an otherwise restive country, would be one of its biggest gains yet. Somers had been kidnapped by al-Qaida in Sanaa in September 2013 and Korkie in the city of Taiz in May 2013.