Illela, Nigeria
SEAL Team 6 rescue: U.S. Navy SEALs rescued an American hostage in northern Nigeria this week, killing six of his seven captors in a daring nighttime raid. Philip Walton, a 27-yearold missionary, was abducted from a village in Niger near the Nigerian border last week. The gang demanded $1 million to secure his release. But U.S. counterterrorism officials feared the kidnappers might sell Walton to ISIS or al Qaida—both jihadist groups operate in the region—so they acted quickly to free him, tracking his kidnappers’ cellphones to their hideout. “Today’s operation,” President Trump said in a statement, “should serve as a stark warning to terrorists and criminal thugs who mistakenly believe they can kidnap Americans with impunity.” Meanwhile, another American citizen—Jeffery Rey Woodke, a 60-year-old Christian aid worker who was snatched by ISIS in Niger in 2016—is still being held, possibly in Mali.