Militant Group Claims to Rescue German Hostages in Nigeria
Militants say they freed hostages from rival group through "audacious mission."
August 14, 2008— -- A Nigerian militant group says it has rescued two German hostages kidnapped by another armed group last month in the oil-rich Niger Delta. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) claimed in an e-mail received by ABC News that its "elite commando unit" staged a successful rescue today inside the "heavily fortified hideout" of the rival unit.
The two Germans, employees of the German construction firm Julius Berger, were kidnapped by armed gunmen on July 11th in southern Nigeria. So far there has been no confirmation by Nigerian officials of the hostages' release. In its self-congratulatory e-mail, MEND claims no shots were fired during its "audacious mission", and that the rescue was "more of cunning as it gave the kidnappers the impression we were on the same page and had a grudge against Julius Berger." MEND says the mission was code-named OPAS (Operation Paul and Silas), and was the culmination of "weeks of intense intelligence gathering, planning and training."
The Niger Delta has been plagued with violence in recent years, as militant groups have launched a series of attacks against oil installations to protest economic and environmental exploitation in the region. The campaign of violence has caused a serious disruption in oil production in Nigeria and has contributed to record high oil prices worldwide. MEND, considered the main militant group in the region, has frequently denounced other groups for kidnapping hostages and ransoming them for large payments from the oil companies.