WASHINGTON — “Good job tonight,” President Barack Obama told his Defense chief as he arrived for his annual State of the Union message.

Unknown to a global television audience watching the speech moments later, a bold hostage rescue operation had played out half a world away with an elite Navy SEAL team’s rescue of two hostages in Somalia, one of them an American. It was the same SEAL team that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, a U.S. official said this morning.

Publicly, Obama did not tip his hand during his speech, though microphones picked up his congratulation to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta as he entered the House chamber Tuesday night.

Obama had learned shortly before that the operation to rescue American aid worker Jessica Buchanan and another hostage had been successful.

The president did not mention the operation during his address to Congress and the nation.

In a predawn White House statement, Obama praised U.S. Special Operations Forces who rescued Buchanan and Dane Poul Hagen Thisted, who had been kidnapped at gunpoint by Somali pirates in October.