Washington (CNN) -- U.S. Special Forces parachuted overnight into Somalia from fixed-wing planes, then advanced on foot to a compound holding two kidnapped international aid workers and freed them, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

The nine gunmen holding the hostages -- an American and a Dane -- were killed, the officials said.

Jessica Buchanan, 32, and Poul Thisted, 60, had been held since October 25, when they were abducted in Galkayo, central Somalia, after they visited humanitarian projects, said the Danish Refugee Council, the agency for which they worked.

Neither was harmed, the aid group said.

They were taken to a regional medical facility, Pentagon spokesman George Little said Wednesday.

"They are not hospitalized," said Andreas Kamm, secretary-general of the Danish Refugee Council, so "we take it as a sign that they're OK."

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The pair phoned their families from the African nation of Djibouti after the rescue, said Ann Mary Olsen of the Danish Refugee Council, according to Danish TV2 reporter Thorkild Dahl.

Navy SEALs from the unit that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden last year in Pakistan participated in the mission, a U.S. official said, without specifying whether any of the same individuals were on both assaults.