Baku, Azerbaijan, March 5
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
The Islamic Republic security forces have released an Iranian diplomat kidnapped in Yemen in 2013.
"The security forces released the kidnapped diplomat, Nour Ahmad Nikbakht after a series of complex operations in a certain region of Yemen," Hossein Amir Abdollahian, Iran's deputy foreign minister in Arab and North African Affairs said, Iran's Mehr news agency reported March 5.
Nikbakht returned home on March 5 morning after detained in Yemen for more than 1.5 year.
After Nikbakht was kidnapped, a special committee was established in the foreign ministry to secure his freedom, Amir Abdollahian said.
Nikbakht was on his way to work from his home in the diplomatic quarter of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, on July 21, 2013, when unidentified gunmen blocked the road, forced him out of his vehicle and abducted him.
In January 2014, another staff member at the Iranian Embassy in Sanaa, Abolqasem Asadi, was gunned down by gunmen outside the Iranian ambassador's residence in the Yemeni capital.
The assailants first tried to kidnap the Iranian diplomat, but when they faced resistance, opened fire on him. The diplomat who was seriously injured passed away in hospital.
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