Three Americans held captive by Shi'ite rebels in Yemen's capital have been freed.
A short English-language statement on the Oman News Agency on Thursday said only that the US State Department had asked Oman to bring the Americans out of the country. It did not elaborate or provide information on their identities.
However, independent security officials in Yemen and members of the Shi'ite rebels known as Houthis said the Americans had been detained for at least two months at a Houthi security building in the rebel-held capital of Sanaa.
The rebels and the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren't authorised to brief journalists, did not say why the Americans were held.
Two of them were working with the United Nations, the officials said, while offering no information about the third.
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The Houthis previously said they had detained two Americans on suspicion of being spies, but it wasn't immediately clear if those two were included in the release.
Some foreigners have been held in recent months by fighters involved in the country's ongoing civil war, either as political hostages or for ransom.
The Oman News Agency quoted an unnamed Foreign Ministry official in its report as saying: "The three US citizens were transported from Sanaa to Muscat on board ... one of the Royal Air Force of Oman aircrafts, after which they will return to their country."
The US Embassy in Muscat had no immediate comment.
