Somali pirates freed British hostage Judith Tebbutt on Wednesday, saying a ransom had been paid, more than six months after gunmen killed her husband and snatched her from a luxury beach resort in neighbouring Kenya. Tebbutt's kidnapping and the subsequent abductions of other foreigners prompted Kenya to send hundreds of troops into Somalia in October to try to crush the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militants that Nairobi blamed for the attacks.
"After efforts today, we have succeeded in the release of the British woman," Omar Mohammed Diirey, a regional official, told Reuters from Adado in central Somalia. TV footage showed Tebbutt, who is in her 50s, wearing a green headscarf and running towards a plane in a flat, barren landscape in Adado, Somalia.
A man in a bush hat and safari jacket was seen accompanying her, his arm around her shoulder. A pirate, who identified himself as Ahmed, told Reuters a ransom had been dropped by air, although it was not clear who had made the payment. He said $800,000 had been received and another $140,000 went to brokers and handlers. Tebbutt was handed over to regional officials early on Wednesday after the ransom was paid.
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