Dubai: A UAE military intelligence operation has freed a British oil worker held hostage for 18 months by a Yemeni Al Qaida terrorist cell.
Robert Douglas Semple, 64, a petroleum engineer, landed safely in the UAE after a coordinated military operation freed the Briton from his captors.
He was snatched by Al Qaida in February 2014 while working in the Hadhramaut area in Yemen.
“During a military intelligence operation, the UAE forces freed Mr. Semple, taking him to Aden from where he was flown on a UAE military aircraft to Abu Dhabi,” reported news agency WAM on Sunday.
“This action by the UAE forces in Aden is renewed evidence of the UAE’s unchanging policy towards terrorism in all of its forms and manifestations. It also confirms the strong and friendly relations between the United Arab Emirates and Britain.”
British PM David Cameron thanked UAE for their help in freeing Semple in a tweet.
I'm so pleased for the family of the British hostage in Yemen - who has been released safe and well. Thanks to the UAE for their help.— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) August 23, 2015
The news agency reported that His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, telephoned British Prime Minister David Cameron on Saturday evening to brief him on a UAE Armed Forces operation in Aden that reached the location in Yemen where the UK citizen had been kidnapped by the terrorist Al Qaida organisation.
WAM reported that the hostage-extraction by the UAE military “further provides a good example of the importance of strengthening coordination and cooperation while facing up to and eradicating terrorism”.
Semple arrives in UAE
When Semple arrived in Abu Dhabi, he was met by UAE officials and the British Ambassador and transported to hospital for immediate treatment. He is expected to travel to the UK after getting an all-clear from doctors.
The UAE authorities said they helped Semple speak with his wife by telephone to break the good news that he had been liberated and would be home as soon as possible.
Officials with the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi remained closemouthed about the rescue effort on Sunday, when contacted by Gulf News, noting that the operation was a UAE military exercise.
In a statement, the embassy confirmed that a “British hostage has been released following a UAE military intelligence operation in Yemen. The Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has announced that a hostage held in Yemen has been freed.
“I’m pleased to confirm that a British hostage held in Yemen has been extracted by UAE forces in a military intelligence operation. The British national is safe and well, and is receiving support from British government officials. We are very grateful for the assistance of the UAE,” Hammond said.
The embassy said the Semple family had asked for privacy and “that the media do not try to contact them".
Semple 'fortunate to be alive'
One senior veteran of the oil-and-gas industry working in Abu Dhabi told Gulf News on Sunday that Semple was extremely fortunate to be alive given historical hostage takings that often ended in grief.
“These kidnappings have been happening off and on for decades and they are extremely serious for not only the oil workers but for their families. The danger of being kidnapped is always present,” said the American veteran. “They always try to grab the petroleum engineers, the key people who control production. This man is lucky to be alive.”
He pointed to recent hostage crises such as the January 2013 hijacking by Al Qaida of a natural gas compound in east Algeria in which 37 hostages died, many of them gas workers from the UK. Up to seven of the hostages were reportedly executed before special forces stormed the facility and killed more than two dozen Al Qaida operatives.
Trouble spot for oil workers
Yemen has long been a trouble spot for oil workers on the ground who have been targeted since the early 1990s in a rash of continued hostage-takings by tribesman for ransoms and political demands.
In May, 1993, two men working for Hunt Oil Company were taken hostage by Yemeni tribesmen near Marib but later released.
According to a United States Department of State report, two incidents in January, 1994 saw two kidnapping incidents of petroleum workers employed by Hunt Oil Company involving 12 workers who were later freed after negotiations.
In January 1999, another Hunt Oil Company worker was kidnapped in Yemen by tribesmen from his compound but later released amid reports that up to eight Western workers in Yemen were being held hostage at the time.
In February, a four-member Dutch family as well as a British couple were finally released by Yemen tribesmen.
Media requests by Gulf News on Sunday to Hunt Oil Company asking if Semple was an employee went unanswered as of press time.
—With inputs from WAM
