Somali police free kidnapped German, wife

Bosasso: A kidnapped German man and his wife were freed by Somali police in an attack on the kidnappers' hideout, officials said on Monday.

The pair were abducted at gunpoint on Saturday and held in a hilly region east of Bosasso, the main port of the semi-autonomous northern region of Puntland.

"We have released the German and his local wife using force," Bosasso governor Muse Gelle Yusuf told reporters.
"We surrounded the kidnappers last night in a valley, and attacked them this morning."

One of the kidnappers was injured in gunfire during the operation. "We have the man and woman in our hands and they are safe," the governor added.

The German had been in the region for several weeks, spending time with his wife's family, officials said.