Seizes oil militant camps:

Nigeria military frees hostages

NIGERIA: Nigeria's security forces handed 19 foreign and local hostages back to their employers Thursday after freeing them from militant camps in the creeks of the Niger Delta oil region.

The hostages - two Americans, two Frenchmen, two Indonesians, one Canadian and 12 Nigerians - were rescued late on Wednesday in a major operation, said Charles Omoregie, commander of the JTF military taskforce in the Niger Delta.

The release of the hostages is a key victory for President Goodluck Jonathan's administration at a time when militants, who have in the past caused major disruption to the OPEC member's mainstay oil industry, looked to be staging a comeback.

Resurgent unrest, including car bombings claimed by the oil region's main militant group in Abuja on Oct. 1, risked undermining his credibility ahead of elections next April.

"Anyone who thinks they can hold the government hostage should rethink," Jonathan's aide Hassan Tukur said in London.

Omoregie said the military had taken over several militant camps.

Reuters