But the UAE’s official news agency, WAM, said on its Twitter account that the Briton was being held by al Qaeda in the southern Yemen port city of Aden and had been transferred to the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi.
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“I’m pleased to confirm that a British hostage held in Yemen has been extracted by UAE forces in a military intelligence operation”, Hammond said in a statement.
“We are very grateful for the assistance of the UAE”, he added.
The UAE is part of the Saudi-led and U.S.-backed coalition that has been launching airstrikes against Shiite rebels in Yemen since March.
Douglas Robert Semple, 64, is a petroleum engineer, who was abducted in the Hadramaut area in February 2014, the report said.
Yemeni loyalists are backed by countries including Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Several Britons have been recently kidnapped in impoverished Yemen, where abductions are frequent as armed tribesmen and al Qaida-linked militants take hostages in an effort to swap them for prisoners or cash. The Houthis and their allies control much of northern Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa.
The statement carried by WAM said Semple had been met at the airport in Abu Dhabi by UAE officials and the British ambassador.
The hostage was taken to Abu Dhabi on a military plane on Saturday night, when the emirate’s crown prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan told Prime Minister David Cameron about the release. In June, the White House said a drone strike killed the head of al-Qaida’s Yemeni branch, Nasir al-Wahishi, who was considered the second most senior leader in the global network.
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Kidnappings of citizens from western countries by Islamist groups are common as they fetch hefty ransoms.
