A German hostage held by Yemeni tribesmen was freed today after nearly two weeks in captivity.
A senior Yemeni police official said special Yemen forces backed by helicopters stormed the kidnappers' hideout in a village some 170 km east of the capital Sanaa to rescue the 50-year-old hostage. He said police had arrested one person involved in the hostage-taking, but did not say what had happened to the other kidnappers.
Armed tribesmen abducted the German man, an employee of a local Mercedes Benz car dealership, from central Sanaa last Thursday, just hours after Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh started a state visit to Germany.
Yemeni newspapers named the hostage as Carl Lehrner, but the German embassy in Sanaa has refused to identify him.
A Yemeni government official said the Interior Ministry had notified the German Ambassador of the hostage's release. The German embassy declined to comment.
It was not immediately clear if any of the kidnappers or security forces had been hurt.
Tribal sources had earlier said at least five people were killed and several others wounded during clashes that followed government shelling of the kidnappers' hideout.
Scores of tourists and foreigners working in the poor Arab state have been kidnapped in recent years, often by disgruntled tribesmen demanding better services and infrastructure.
Most Western hostages have been released unharmed, but last year a Norwegian diplomat was shot dead in a gun battle between security forces and kidnappers.
In September, Yemeni tribesmen released a German diplomat after holding him hostage for nearly two months.