Four aid workers kidnapped from a refugee camp
in Kenya close to the border with Somalia have been released and are
safe, military officials say.
The foreigners, from Canada, Norway, Pakistan and the Philippines, worked for the Norwegian Refugee Council. A Kenyan driver was killed in the attack.
An NRC spokesman said the council would issue a statement shortly.
The number of attacks on aid workers in Somalia has been rising recently.
The workers were travelling in a convoy last week when they were ambushed by gunmen in Dadaab, which houses more than 450,000 Somalis.
"They are safe in our hands, they have been freed," Kenyan army spokesman Cyrus Oguna was quoted by AFP as saying.
"They were released in a joint force of Somali and Kenyan forces, during which one of the kidnappers was killed."
The officer said the forces the operation after receiving intelligence as to the hostages' whereabouts.
Somalia has had no effective central government since 1991, and has been wracked by fighting ever since - a situation that has allowed piracy and lawlessness to flourish.
Gunmen last October seized two Spaniards working for Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders). They are still being held hostage in Somalia.-BBC
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