May 19, 2010 - Daily Star - KSA Saudis forces free two German girls abducted in Yemen

Saudis forces free two German girls abducted in Yemen

Paul Handley
Agence France Presse

RIYADH: Two young German girls held hostage for nearly a year in the rugged north Yemen mountains were rescued by Saudi security forces, but the fate of their doctor parents and an infant brother was unknown, officials said Tuesday.
Germany welcomed news of the rescue while a relative of the family said they presumed the one-year-old brother is dead. There was also no word on the fate of a Briton abducted with them.
Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman General Mansour al-Turki told AFP that the two girls, aged three and five, are in a Saudi hospital.
“Their condition is okay. But they are in the hospital to make sure they get any medical care they might need,” he said.
A ministry statement released on the SPA news agency said the girls were freed on Monday.
“Security forces in communication with Yemen counterparts were able to recover two German girls in the border region between the two countries on Monday,” the statement said.
“They were part of a group kidnapped by criminal elements last year,” it added.
The girls were part of a group of seven Germans, a Briton and a South Korean seized in Yemen’s northern mountains in June last year.
The group was associated with a Protestant-run hospital in Saada in northwest Yemen, the scene of a longstanding conflict between government forces and Zaidi Shiite rebels.
The bodies of two German women, both of them Bible students, and the South Korean were found soon after the abduction, raising fears for the safety of the other hostages.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said the girls, whose parents, both 37, were doctors, would return to Germany on Wednesday.
“We are relieved that the Saudi security forces have succeeded in freeing two of our five compatriots kidnapped in Yemen,” he said in a statement.
“The two little girls are currently under the protection of the Saudi authorities. They are doing well given the difficult circumstances. They should be returning to Germany tomorrow,” he added.
Turki said he had no information on the four remaining hostages, but indicated that the operation by interior ministry special forces and intelligence is ongoing.
“We don’t have any idea about the others,” he said. “I believe the operation still has some objectives to achieve.”
But a family spokesman in Germany said that the brother was probably dead.
“There is one missing … We have to assume that the boy is no longer alive,” said Reinhard Poetschke. Relatives were informed on Monday that the pair had been freed, he said.
The fate of the unidentified British man was also unknown.
“We are urgently investigating these reports and remain in close touch with the Yemeni authorities,” a British Foreign Office spokesman said in London. “We remain concerned for the safety of the kidnapped British national.”
The rescue announcement came after unconfirmed reports from Yemen on Tuesday that Saudi forces had crossed the border into a Yemeni village and that Saudi military helicopters were flying over the area.
Turki said he could not provide any details of the operation, which he said was carried out by interior ministry security forces and not the army. The Saudi side worked closely with Yemen authorities on the rescue.
“We got information and we thought the two girls were so close,” he said.
“This was an intelligence operation. Our operation did not actually have any security forces inside Yemen,” he told AFP. “It was a humanitarian effort and a job that we could take on.”
In January, Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Kurbi said that the government had determined that the five Germans and the Briton were being held in Saada, and that the government was conducting negotiations for their release.
In early April, following a ceasefire deal between the Zaidi Shiite rebels and the government, Yemen’s deputy prime minister for defense Rashad al-Alimi said the government was still pressing efforts to secure their release.