US special forces carried out a hostage rescue mission in Hadramout, freeing eight captives and killing seven AQAP in the process.

The US commandos, from the Joint Special Operations Command, rescued six Yemeni hostages as well as one Ethiopia and one Saudi. However it transpired a US citizen was the target of the rescue mission. The journalist, whose name has not been withheld at the request of his family, was moved to a new location two days before this operation.

According to Yemen-based freelance reporter Iona Craig, the captors also held, and moved, “a British oil-worker, kidnapped in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in February was also believed to be amongst the group, along with an Iranian diplomat and the Saudi Arabian deputy consul, snatched in Aden in March 2012.”

It was originally reported as a Yemeni operation. However it subsequently emerged that “about two dozen” US commandos carried out the raid with “a small number of American-trained Yemeni counterterrorism troops,” according to the New York Times.

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The combined force flew into the remote Hagr al Saiaar area near the Saudi border in Hadramout province by helicopter and approached the cave on foot where the hostages were held. A fire-fight ensued before the soldiers and freed captives were flown to safety.

The operation “appeared to be at least partly an attempt to bolster the stature” of the Yemeni president Abd Rabbo Mansoor Hadi, the New York Times reported. It was organised within two weeks of President Hadi asking the US for help, an anonymous US official told the paper.

This was the second joint US-Yemeni special forces raid reported in Yemen this year. In April (21/4/14 STRIKE) US and Yemeni forces reportedly ambushed alleged al Qaeda fighters as they drove through Shabwa province. Three or four people died, including one child.