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Kidnapped Saudi Envoy Released After 3 Years


FILE - Abdullah al-Khalidi, a Saudi Arabian diplomat held hostage in Yemen by Al-Qaida, was returned to Riyadh on Monday after being released by kidnappers in Yemen, March 2, 2015.
FILE - Abdullah al-Khalidi, a Saudi Arabian diplomat held hostage in Yemen by Al-Qaida, was returned to Riyadh on Monday after being released by kidnappers in Yemen, March 2, 2015.

A Saudi Arabian diplomat returned to Riyadh on Monday after being released by kidnappers in Yemen where he spent three years as a hostage, the kingdom's Interior Ministry said in a statement carried by state media.

Abdullah al-Khalidi, Saudi consul in Aden, was seized in March 2012 and later appeared as a hostage in videos released by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) calling on Riyadh to do more to free him.

The Interior Ministry did not say in its brief statement how Khalidi came to be released, except that it was a result of “intensive efforts” made by the kingdom's intelligence agency.

AQAP and its parent organization al-Qaida have sworn to bring down the Saudi state and Riyadh has worked closely with the United States to undermine the groups' operations in Yemen by sharing intelligence, diplomats have said.

Saudi Arabia, Yemen's most powerful neighbor, fears that growing instability there might give more space for AQAP to operate and launch more operations like a cross-border raid it carried out in August in which eight people were killed.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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