In Somalia, pirates move U.S. hostage after raid

By Abdi Guled

MOGADISHU

Pirates moved an American hostage at least three times in 24 hours and threatened Thursday to kill him after Virginia Beach-based Navy SEALs rescued an American and a Dane in a bold nighttime raid that raises questions about whether other Western captives are now in greater danger.

"If they try again, we will all die together," warned Hassan Abdi, a Somali pirate connected to the gang holding the American, who was kidnapped Saturday in northern Somalia.

"It's difficult to hold U.S. hostages, because it's a game of chance: die or get huge money. But we shall stick with our plans and will never release him until we get a ransom," Abdi said.

Members of Oceana-based Navy SEAL Team 6 parachuted into Somalia early Wednesday and hiked to where captors were holding American Jessica Buchanan, 32, and Poul Hagen Thisted, 60, a Dane. A shootout ensued and nine captors were killed.

Buchanan, Thisted and the U.S. troops were all unharmed. The two aid workers had been kidnapped by gunmen in October while working on de-mining projects for the Danish Refugee Council.

Buchanan and Thisted were flown to the U.S. naval air base at Sigonella on the Italian island of Sicily to undergo medical screenings and other evaluations before heading home, a U.S. defense official said.

Buchanan's family was meeting her at the base, which is the hub of U.S. Navy air operations in the Mediterranean.

The U.S. government said the raid was prompted by Buchanan's deteriorating health. An ailing Frenchwoman kidnapped by Somali gunmen died in captivity last year after not having access to her medication.

In the aftermath of Wednesday's rescue, the gang holding the American kidnapped in the northern town of Galkayo have moved him three times, Abdi said.

"Holding hostages in one place is unlikely now because we are the next target," he said by phone.

He also expressed concern that the United States has pirate informants.

"It wasn't just a hit-and-run operation, but long planned with the help of insiders among us," Abdi said, noting that the Americans struck at a time when the pirates were least on their guard.

U.S. State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said U.S. officials have been in contact with the family of the latest American kidnapping victim, who has been identified in published reports as Michael Scott Moore, a Berlin-based journalist who was said to be in Somalia to work on a book about pirates.

"We are also working with our contacts in Kenya and in Somalia to try to get more information," Nuland told reporters in Washington.

Other hostages held in Somalia include a British tourist and two Spanish aid workers seized in neighboring Kenya, a French military adviser, and 155 sailors of various nationalities hijacked by pirates at sea.