An American hostage has been rescued in Nigeria by SEAL Team 6 in a daring raid, Fox News has learned.
The elite commandos jumped out of a U.S. Air Force transport plane a few miles from the target. Without suffering any casualties, the SEALs rescued Philip Walton, 27, after killing a number of his captors.
Walton had been taken hostage by armed men last week, officials told Fox News.
One U.S. official briefed on the mission tells Fox News it would not have been successful without the help from other military services and the intelligence community.
“It was an extraordinary team effort with different parts of the joint force making this happen,” the official said.https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1322568272483475457&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fworld%2Famerican-hostage-rescued-west-africa-seal-team-6-daring-raid&siteScreenName=foxnews&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&width=550px
President Donald Trump tweeted out a show of support, calling the SEAL team members “brave warriors,” and saying that “our nation salutes the courageous soldiers behind the daring nighttime rescue operation.” In a separate tweet, Trump described the operation as a “big win” for the elite force.
Speaking before a crowd in Pennsylvania on Saturday, Trump added: “The kidnappers wished they had never done it. We got our American citizen, we got our young man back, but the other side suffered gravely.”