| Advertisement |
March 6 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump met with Danny Burch, a U.S. oil worker who was abducted in Yemen in 2017, and his family on Wednesday. Burch and Trump met at the White House a little more than a week after it was announced he had been released and reunited with his wife and children after 18 months in captivity.
Advertisement
"Gosh, it's great to be an American," Burch said.
Trump said Wednesday marked "very big moment" as Burch was "back home, where he should be."
"He was in Yemen in a very horrible situation, captive, a prisoner. You can call him whatever you want but it wasn't good. He was there for 18 months and we got him out," Trump said.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., were also present at the meeting and welcomed Burch back to the United States.
Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that Burch had been reunited with his family last Monday, after being released with some from the United Arab Emirates.
Burch, 64, was taken from his car in "broad daylight" in Sana'a, the Yemeni capital, after working on oil rigs in the country since 1994.
He moved to Yemen permanently in 2005 and married Nadia Forsa, a Yemeni woman, with whom he has three children.
