ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – American troops flew two endangered cheetah cubs to the Ethiopian capital yesterday after instigating their rescue from a remote village where a restaurant owner had held them captive and abused them.

The male and female cubs – whom the soldiers named Scout and Patch – were released on the grounds of the Ethiopian president’s official residence after their 680-mile journey from the eastern hamlet of Gode.

“This is the first kind of rescue of animals, let alone cheetahs, that we have done,” Sergeant Leah Cobble, 26, of Washington, said as she cuddled the two purring cubs on the runway of Bole International Airport before handing them to a government veterinarian, Fekadu Shiferaw.

The saga of the cubs started last month when American counterterrorism troops, carrying out humanitarian work in the Gode region, discovered that the animals’ owner was keeping them tied up at his restaurant and forcing them to fight each other for the amusement of patrons and village children.

The soldiers alerted the Ethiopian government and an American-based cheetah rescue organization, drawing international attention to the cubs’ plight. They also tried to persuade the restaurant owner, Mohamed Hudle, to hand over the cubs, but he wanted $1,000 for each animal.

Mr. Fekadu intervened. He flew to the village Saturday, confiscated the cubs, and handed them over to American forces for yesterday’s transport.

“Had we not had the help of the U.S. military, it would not have been possible to rescue these animals,” Mr. Fekadu said.

The cheetah is endangered worldwide according to the Ohio-based Cheetah Conservation Fund.

Keeping wild animals is illegal without a license, but Ethiopia’s wildlife laws are rarely enforced. Mr. Fekadu said the cubs eventually may have been sent to the Middle East as part of the wildlife trafficking trade.

Mr. Mohamed said he bought the cubs from poachers who had kicked the female cub – Patch – in the face, blinding her.

The cubs will now live at the National Palace, home to President Girma Woldegirogis, along with three rescued lions and some vervet monkeys.

American soldiers in the Horn of Africa are part of a task force that provides intelligence-gathering help to countries in the region, tries to bolster cooperation and border protection, and mounts humanitarian projects aimed at improving the American military’s image among Muslims.