24 Navy SEALs 9 Date 25 January 2012 | none 9 killed | |
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Results Mission successful, Hostages freed Similar Maersk Alabama hijacking, Battle of Ras Kamboni, Battle of Bargal, Battle for Central Somalia, Death of Osama bin Laden | ||
On January 25, 2012, a team of United States Navy SEALs raided a compound 12 miles north of the Somali town of Adow, killing nine Somali pirates and freeing their hostages, U.S. citizen Jessica Buchanan and Danish citizen Poul Hagen Thisted.
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Background
In October 2011, Jessica Buchanan and Poul Hagen Thisted, who had been working on a demining project with the Danish Refugee Council, were captured by Somali pirates in Galkayo. Attempts by the Council to enlist local Somali elders and traditional leaders to assist in freeing the hostages were unsuccessful, and the pirates refused an offer of US$1.5 million ransom. With Buchanan's health declining, U.S. officials decided to launch a raid against the pirates using several different United States special operations forces, including elements of the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group.
Raid
Early on January 25, 2012, two dozen Navy SEALs parachuted from a C-130 Hercules 12 miles north of the Somali town of Adow, where pirates had held the pair of hostages in hopes of ransoming them. The SEALs then traveled by foot from their drop zone, attacked the compound, and engaged the pirates, killing all nine of them.
Aftermath
After raiding the pirates' compound and freeing the hostages, the U.S. forces returned to their base at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti. The President of Galmudug (a state within Somalia) thanked the United States for conducting the raid. U.S. President Barack Obama congratulated Defense Secretary Leon Panetta before his 2012 State of the Union address.
Jessica Buchanan gave her first interview about being kidnapped with 60 Minutes in May 2013; among her first thoughts when kidnapped were that it was too soon to die without having children and saying goodbye to her loved ones. Buchanan and her husband returned to the United States from East Africa and now have a new baby boy.