Somali kidnappers free six foreigners

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali kidnappers released on Tuesday six foreigners seized in November in central Somalia, an airport official said.

The six -- two Kenyans, two French, a Bulgarian and a Belgian -- were flown to the Kenyan capital Nairobi in a special plane, arriving late on Tuesday.

"I understand $3 million in ransom was paid to release the six aid workers kidnapped from our region," local elder Farah Hussein told Reuters by phone from Gurael in central Somalia.

The French foreign ministry and the organization the captives work for both denied that any ransom had been paid.

The father of one of the Kenyan pilots echoed the denial.

"I am very very excited that my son is back and we thank God for bringing him back," James Kamore told Reuters as he waited at Nairobi's Wilson Airport.

"No ransom was paid by the Kenya government or the French government it was pure negotiations. They saw they could not get any money out of this and released them," a tearful Kamore said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy welcomed the release.

"The president is overjoyed and very relieved over the announcement that four members of the NGO "Action Contre la Faim," have been freed after being held hostage in Somalia for nine months," a statement from the presidency said.

The foreign hostages were hidden from the press and driven away soon after they arrived in Nairobi, while the two Kenyans were reunited with their families.

Aid workers have been the targets of assassinations and kidnappings during a two-year insurgency led by Islamist militants against the government and foreign backers.

But captives are rarely harmed and are usually set free once a ransom is paid.

Four of the foreigners were aid workers with Action Contre La Faim (Action Against Hunger), and two were the Kenyan pilots who flew them to an airstrip in central Somalia where they were kidnapped by armed men in three battle wagons and three small cars.

President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, a moderate Islamist elected earlier this year in the 15th attempt to form a central government, is struggling to deal with insurgent groups who control swathes of territory.

More than a million Somalis have been uprooted from their homes by the fighting and a third of the population depends on food aid.