Iranian special operatives free diplomat abducted in Yemen

Iran’s official news agency reported Thursday that special operatives freed an Iranian diplomat abducted more than 19 months ago in Yemen.

IRNA quoted deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdolahian as saying the intelligence officers carried out a “difficult and complicated operation” to secure the freedom of Nour Ahmad Nikbakhat from the “hands of terrorists.”

The report said Nikbakhat, who was stationed in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa at the time of his abduction, returned home to Iran on Thursday.

Nikbakht was seized in July 2013 while leaving his home in Sanaa by gunmen suspected of being members of Al-Qaeda.

Iranian state television broadcast images Thursday of the diplomat arriving at Mehrabad airport in Tehran.

“I was kidnapped by unknown gunmen and terrorists as I left my home to go to work,” Nikbakht said.

He said “many efforts were made by soldiers from [Iran’s secret services], the intelligence ministry and the foreign ministry” to secure his release.

Nikbakht was held by suspected Al-Qaeda militants in a remote area between the southern provinces of Shabwa and Baida, tribal and Yemeni security sources said.

In January last year, another Iranian diplomat, Ali Asghar Assadi, was shot dead in an attack in a neighborhood in Sanaa housing several foreign embassies.

Yemen, a key front line in the US war against Al-Qaeda, has been gripped by unrest since longtime president Ali Abdullah Saleh stepped down in early 2012 after a bloody year-long popular uprising.

Violence has increased since a Shiite militia known as the Houthis swept into the capital last September.

The Houthis, who occupied the seats of power in February in what critics branded an attempted coup, are accused of receiving backing from Shiite-dominated Iran.