Officials said that the hostages numbered three Americans, two Saudis and a British national, released with the intervention of Yemen’s neighbour Oman.

The hostages, who were detained earlier this year, include three Americans and a Briton.

But a spokesman for a New Orleans-based logistics company confirms that employee Scott Darden was freed.

Saudi, Emirati and other allied ground troops now are trying to retake Yemen’s rebel-held capital, Sanaa.

“We are deeply appreciative of all who were involved in producing this outcome, including in particular the government of Oman”, Price said in a statement.

The six are believed to have been captured several months ago and at least one was a journalist who entered the country without notifying the rebel authorities.

The coalition’s airstrikes hit an apartment building in the centre of the capital, a Unesco world heritage site, killing a family of nine, the officials who remain neutral in the conflict that has divided Yemen’s security forces said.

It’s not the first time a scene like this has played out in recent years as the unassuming sultanate of Oman wields its influence as one of the Middle East’s most useful go-to mediators of thorny disputes.

Muscat has previously hosted nuclear talks between the USA and Iran, and in June, the Wall Street Journal reported that State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told said Oman “played a key role in facilitating the back channel between the United States and Iran that helped lead to the diplomacy taking place right now on the nuclear issue”.

Yemeni Shiite Houthi jihadists released five prisoners held for months, two of which were Americans. Almost all were eventually freed unharmed. USA officials asked that the name of the third American, who had been in Yemen teaching English, be withheld because it could jeopardize efforts to free him.

Korkie’s supporters complained after the raid that they had been on the verge of negotiating his release.

Obama, while not revoking Washington’s policy of not making concessions, has said families will not be prosecuted for discussing ransom demands with kidnappers.

Tv News Room