U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that an American oil worker held captive for 18 months in the Middle East has been released and reunited with his wife and children.
Trump praised the United Arab Emirates for helping to free Danny Lavone Burch, who was abducted by unidentified gunmen on a busy street in Sanaa, the war-torn Yemeni capital, in September 2017. Burch later was taken to Oman in January of 2018, accompanied by a Houthi negotiator.
There were no immediate details of the release of Burch, who is in his mid-60s. He was working as an engineer at a Yemeni oil company at the time of his abduction, which was carried out in broad daylight.
Armed groups, including an al-Qaida affiliate and Houthi rebels who control Sanaa, have abducted Westerners to extract ransoms from their governments or accuse them of being spies. But nothing had publicly been heard of Burch's fate since the Houthis transported him to Oman 13 months ago.
Trump said, "Danny’s recovery reflects the best of what the United States & its partners can accomplish. We work every day to bring Americans home. We maintain constant and intensive diplomatic, intelligence, and law enforcement cooperation within the United States Government and with our foreign partners."
The U.S. leader said "recovering American hostages is a priority" of his administration. "We will not rest as we continue our work to bring the remaining American hostages back home!"