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Hagel: U.S. hostage ‘murdered’ in Yemen Hagel: U.S. hostage ‘murdered’ in Yemen
(about 5 hours later)
An American journalist was killed by al-Qaeda militants in Yemen during an attempt by Navy SEALs to rescue him from captivity, the Pentagon said Saturday. Another hostage, a South African, also perished. U.S. Navy SEALs had walked nearly seven miles from their landing zone in southern Yemen and were within about 300 feet of the al-Qaeda compound where American journalist Luke Somers was being held when they suddenly came under fire, U.S. officials said Saturday.
In a statement, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said U.S. special operations forces conducted the raid in central Yemen because the life of Luke Somers, the American journalist, appeared to be in “imminent danger.” As the commandos battled in the darkness, night-vision cameras in aircraft hovering overhead watched one militant hurry to the building housing Somers. By the time the Americans fought their way there, the militant was gone and Somers and another hostage, South African teacher Pierre Korkie, lay mortally wounded.
“Both Mr. Somers and a second non-U.S. citizen hostage were murdered by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) terrorists during the course of the operation,” Hagel said during a visit to Afghanistan. “On behalf of the men and women of the U.S. armed forces, I extend our condolences, thoughts and prayers to their families and loved ones.” Korkie died aboard a rescue aircraft, according to officials who provided details of the operation. Somers survived to reach a nearby Navy ship, the USS Makin Island, where he died while undergoing surgery.
Hagel did not discuss the specific unit that led the raid, but a U.S. intelligence official later said Navy SEALs carried out the operation.  No casualties were reported among the 40-person U.S. rescue team.
The second person killed by al-Qaeda during the rescue attempt was a South African being held hostage, according to U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the raid were secret. In the wake of the rescue attempt, which took place at 1 a.m. Saturday, Yemen time (5 p.m. Friday in Washington), officials said that the decision to undertake it was made after U.S. intelligence determined his al-Qaeda captors were about to execute Somers.
A South African disaster relief organization, Gift of the Givers Foundation, said the other hostage was Pierre Korkie. The foundation was working to free him. But the failure to bring the hostages out alive, following two earlier attempts to rescue U.S. captives in recent months, was likely to raise questions about the operations and the intelligence that preceded them.
Korkie, who had been working as a teacher in Yemen, and his wife, Yolande, were abducted in May 2013. Yolande Korkie was released from captivity in January, according to a post on the foundation’s Web site. The post also claimed AQAP had agreed to release Pierre Korkie on Sunday. Last summer’s raid to rescue Americans being held in Syria by the ­Islamic State, and an attempt to rescue Somers two weeks ago, did not succeed because in both cases the hostages had been moved before the commandos arrived. Two of the Islamic State hostages, journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, were later executed.
Both hostages were attacked by militants as the rescuers arrived, U.S. officials said. When rescuers entered the building where they were being held, both were still alive, according to a senior administration official. They were put on a V-22 Osprey and evacuated to a waiting U.S. Navy ship. Korkie died en route, and Somers aboard the ship. In a video released Wednesday following the initial attempt to rescue Somers, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) warned “Obama and the American government of the consequences of proceeding ahead in any other foolish action.”
The official said that the rescue attempt, which President Obama approved Friday morning, took place at approximately 5 p.m. Friday, Washington time. The threat to execute Somers within 72 hours, if unspecified demands were not met, led to operational planning for a second rescue attempt, which President Obama approved early Friday. Officials said U.S. intelligence gleaned from the first attempt contributed to their certainty of where Somers was being held, in a group of compounds that make up a small village in Shabwah governate, a remote region along the Gulf of Aden. Defense, intelligence and administration officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details of the secret operation.
The timing of the mission was based on the video threat from AQAP, saying that Somers would be killed within 72 hours, a window U.S. intelligence assessed would close on Saturday. A rescue team developed an operational plan, including assessments of the risks involved, based in part on information gathered during a previous, unsuccessful rescue attempt. The commandos did not know of Korkie’s presence in the compound. They had unconfirmed reports that another hostage might be with Somers but thought it would be someone else, a British citizen also being held by AQAP.
The hostages were being held in a compound of buildings in Yemen’s Shabwah governorate, a remote region with “hilly, scrubby” and “rough terrain,” bordering the Gulf of Aden on Yemen’s southern coast, officials said. The tragedy of the South African’s death appeared to worsen when the South African relief organization that employed him, Gift of the Givers Foundation, said that his negotiated release had been expected Sunday.
As the team of about 40 approached the compound, about 100 yards out “they lost the element of surprise,” a U.S. defense official said. A firefight with the militants began immediately as they touched down. How the team, which had approached the compound from a landing zone about six miles away, was spotted is unknown. Korkie, who had been working as a teacher in Yemen, and his wife, Yolande, were abducted in May 2013. Yolande Korkie was released from captivity in January, according to a post on the foundation’s Web site.
Because of the direction of fire, the defense official said they were nearly 100 percent sure that Somers and the other hostage were shot immediately by the AQAP militants. Somers, 33, a British-born U.S. citizen, was abducted in September 2013 from the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, on a busy street near a supermarket. He had been working in the country as a freelance photojournalist.
With overhead surveillance that was maintained throughout the rescue attempt, one militant was seen going into the building where Somers was known to be held, the administration official said. The militant stayed “for about a five to seven count . . . long enough of course to shoot people or take any other action. We didn’t have visibility inside.” Hostage executions, video­-recorded by militants and disseminated online and via social media, have placed increasing pressure on the Obama administration to launch rescue attempts. While a number of militant-held European hostages have been released in exchange for million-dollar ransoms, the administration has said that payment will only increase the number of hostages taken. It has refused to pay and has pressured other governments not to participate in ransom negotiations.
By the time the U.S. team was able to reach the building, “the terrorist had already fled.” Although the administration last spring traded five Taliban detainees from the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for a U.S. serviceman captured in Afghanistan and being held in Pakistan, it described that negotiation as an exchange of war prisoners rather than a hostage ransom.
The defense official said five AQAP militants had been killed in the firefight. None were captured. The three failed attempts to rescue hostages alive through military means come as U.S. Special Forces have conducted a series of successful raids to capture wanted militants. In June, Ahmed Abu Khattala, indicted for alleged participation in the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, that left four American officials dead, was snatched in a raid in Libya. He is awaiting trial in this country.
Inside, the team found two hostages, both grievously wounded, the senior administration official said. The hostages were evacuated by aircraft. “One perished on the way” to the ship, “the other on the operating table once they got to the ship.” But taking a suspect off the street at a time of U.S. choosing, and rescuing hostages held by well-armed militants anticipating a raid, are different matters.
The U.S. forces were not on the ground more than 30 minutes, said the official, who described it as “a quick fight.” As described by U.S. officials, about 40 Navy SEALs were transported from the USS Makin Island, said to be located “in close proximity to Yemen,” aboard V-22 Osprey aircraft that fly like airplanes but can land like helicopters. Using night-vision equipment, they began walking over terrain described as “hilly, scrubby” and “rough.”
Initial reports indicated there were no casualties among the U.S. forces. The Navy SEAL team was from the USS Makin Island. Officials declined to say where the ship was located, beyond that it was “in close proximity to Yemen.” As the team approached the compound and were about 300 feet away, “they lost the element of surprise,” an official said, and a firefight with the militants began. Officials said they were not certain how the team had been spotted.
The official said that the Yemeni government was informed prior to the rescue attempt, but that no Yemeni forces had taken part. Yemeni special forces had participated in the earlier attempt to rescue Somers. Because of the direction of fire, a defense official said, they were nearly 100 percent certain that Somers and the other hostage were killed by the AQAP militants and not in crossfire.
Somers, 33, was abducted in September 2013 from the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, on a busy street near a supermarket. He had been working in the country as a freelance photojournalist. Via overhead surveillance that was maintained throughout the rescue attempt, one militant was seen going into the building where Somers was known to be held, a senior administration official said. The militant stayed “for about a five to seven count . . . long enough, of course, to shoot people or take any other action. We didn’t have visibility inside.”
“I offer my deepest condolences to Luke’s family and to his loved ones,” Obama said. “I also offer my thoughts and prayers to the family of a non-U.S. citizen hostage who was also murdered by these terrorists during the rescue operation. Their despair and sorrow at this time are beyond words.” By the time the commandos reached the building, the administration official said, “the terrorist had already fled.”
Last month, U.S. special operations forces launched a raid aimed at freeing Somers, but he had been moved shortly before the mission took place. In that raid, U.S. forces managed to free several Yemeni hostages. The terrorist group said several of its fighters were killed during the first rescue operation in the eastern province of Hadramawt. The defense official said five AQAP militants were killed in the firefight. None were captured.
Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen remains one of the group’s most powerful branches despite years of U.S. and Yemeni efforts to contain it. The wounded hostages, found inside the building, were immediately evacuated aboard an Osprey, but “one perished on the way” to the USS Makin Island and “the other on the operating table” aboard the ship, an amphibious assault vessel.
In a short video released earlier this week after the failed first raid that included footage of Somers, al-Qaeda in Yemen warned “Obama and the American government of the consequences of proceeding ahead in any other foolish action.” The U.S. forces were not on the ground more than 30 minutes, said the defense official, who described it as “a quick fight.”
The group said it would kill Somers on Saturday, according to the video. A flurry of Twitter postings from jihadists in Yemen claimed that three U.S. “Marines” and eight Yemeni special forces were killed during the operation.
Somers’s family also released a video after al-Qaeda made that statement, finally deciding to go public about their son’s kidnapping. Reached Saturday by the Associated Press, Somers’s sister, Lucy Somers, said the family had been notified of his death by the FBI but asked that the family be “allowed to mourn in peace.”
“He is a good person and he has only been trying to do good things for the Yemeni population. He goes out of his way to care for and respect the common person, and he has made many lasting friends in Yemen,” Somers’s brother said in the video. “Luke is only a photojournalist and he is not responsible for any action the U.S. government has taken. Please understand that we had no prior knowledge of the rescue attempt for Luke and we mean no harm to anyone.” Since Somers’s kidnapping last year, his family had appealed for news of the abduction not to be made public. But after the AQAP video was released Wednesday, the family released their own video.
“He is a good person, and he has only been trying to do good things for the Yemeni population. He goes out of his way to care for and respect the common person, and he has made many lasting friends in Yemen,” Somers’s brother said in the video. “Luke is only a photojournalist, and he is not responsible for any action the U.S. government has taken. Please understand that we had no prior knowledge of the rescue attempt for Luke and we mean no harm to anyone.”
His mother also spoke, pleading for mercy.His mother also spoke, pleading for mercy.
“Give us an opportunity to see our Luke again. He is all that we have.”“Give us an opportunity to see our Luke again. He is all that we have.”
Ryan reported from Kabul. Missy Ryan in Kabul contributed to this report.