Officials: Yemen rebels release 6 foreign hostages

Yemen's Shiite Houthi rebels have released six foreigners whom they were holding hostage and they are flying out of the country's capital Sanaa, airport officials and Houthi officials said on Sept.20. 

The airport and Houthi officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters, said the six are flying to the Gulf nation of Oman, which negotiated their release.
     
The officials said the hostages, who were detained earlier this year, are three Americans, two Saudis and a British national. The identities of the hostages were not immediately known.
     
Officials from the Houthi media center refused explain why they had detained the hostages. But at least one of them is a journalist, whom they said "entered the country illegally" and "worked without notifying the authorities."
     
A Houthi delegation left with the hostages to go to Oman, where they will resume talks with the U.N. envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the Houthi officials said. A Houthi statement came out shortly after confirming the delegation's visit to Oman.
     
Meanwhile, Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdel Salam held a press conference at the airport and refused to confirm the hostages' release.
     
"If we were to release anyone, it would be in exchange for the release of Houthis," he said, without specifying which authorities he was addressing.
     
The conflicting information could not immediately be reconciled.
     
The U.S. Embassy in Muscat and the British Foreign Office were unable to immediately confirm the hostages' release. Omani officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
     
In June, American freelance journalist Casey Coombs, who was...