American Woman Rescued in Secretive Military Op, Trump Says

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U.S. President Donald Trump listens during the daily coronavirus briefing in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on March 22, 2020. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
U.S. President Donald Trump listens during the daily coronavirus briefing in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on March 22, 2020. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

President Donald Trump said Sunday that an unspecified military operation had been conducted in a "certain area" overseas to rescue a female U.S. citizen who was being "horribly treated."

Details on the operation and where it was conducted were initially being kept "somewhat private," Trump said, but he added that "we got her out and she's OK, and she's back with her parents."

At the beginning of a White House news conference on the coronavirus, the president spoke to efforts to bring U.S. citizens home from overseas during the pandemic, and cited cooperation from the governments of Peru and Honduras.

"We were able to get a young woman released from a certain area who was being horribly accosted, horribly treated," he then added.

Related: US Defense Department Announces 1st Coronavirus Death

Trump said he consulted with Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, who "took care of it. We went in and we got her out, but that was rough stuff."

He thanked Milley "and all the people involved and people who went in to get her."

In a question-and-answer session at the news conference, Trump was asked for details, but said only that "bad things were happening to her in a certain country," adding that "Gen. Milley does not play games."

There was no immediate response from the Pentagon to questions on the operation.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.

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