Luke Somers, a U.S. journalist, and Pierre Korkie, a South African teacher, held by al Qaeda militants in Yemen were killed alongside 10 of their captors during a rescue attempt by U.S. and Yemeni forces, senior officials said on Saturday.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said al Qaeda militants killed Somers, 33, and another foreign national hostage during the rescue operation, which he said was only approved because of information that their lives were at imminent risk. Somers was moved from the scene of the rescue attempt but died later from his wounds, a senior official in the Yemeni president's office said.
U.S. President Barack Obama condemned the "barbaric murder" in a statement released Saturday.
"On behalf of the American people, I offer my deepest condolences to Luke's family and to his loved ones," read the statement.
"As this and previous hostage rescue operations demonstrate, the United States will spare no effort to use all of its military, intelligence and diplomatic capabilities to bring Americans home safely, wherever they are located.
"And terrorists who seek to harm our citizens will feel the long arm of American justice."
Obama said he authorized the raid on Friday to rescue Somers and other hostages held in the same location. He said the United States had used every tool at its disposal to secure Somers' release since his capture 15 months ago.
"Luke was a photojournalist who sought through his images to convey the lives of Yemenis to the outside world," Obama said.
"The callous disregard for Luke's life is more proof of the depths of AQAP's depravity, and further reason why the world must never cease in seeking to defeat their evil ideology," he said.
No news of 3 other hostages
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is seen by Washington as one of the movement's most dangerous branches, and it has worked with the Yemeni government and via drone strikes to attack its leadership in southern and eastern parts of Yemen.
Relief group Gift of the Givers identified Korkie as being among those killed in the operation.
"We received with sadness the news that Pierre was killed in an attempt by American Special Forces, in the early hours of this morning, to free hostages in Yemen," it said in a statement on its website.
Agence France-Presse reported that Korkie was a teacher who was abducted in May of last year along with his wife Yolande, who was released in January.
However, there was no new information about three other hostages — a Briton, a Turk and a Yemeni — who had previously been held alongside Somers and Korkie, a Yemeni security official told Reuters.
Lucy Somers, the photojournalist's sister, told the Associated Press that she and her father learned of her brother's death from FBI agents at early Saturday.
"We ask that all of Luke's family members be allowed to mourn in peace," she said from London.
Immediate danger
Kerry and U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel both said the decision to mount the raid was based on fears that AQAP planned to kill Somers.
"Earlier this week, AQAP released a video announcing that Luke would be murdered within 72 hours. Along with other information, there was a compelling indication that Luke's life was in immediate danger," Kerry said.
U.S. officials on Thursday said American forces had already attempted to rescue Somers, without giving further details. Yemeni officials had previously disclosed the release of six Yemenis, a Saudi and an Ethiopian hostage in a raid on Nov 25.
AQAP on Thursday released a video showing a man it said was Somers speaking to the camera and saying: "I'm looking for any help that can get me out of this situation. I'm certain that my life is in danger."
Reuters was not able to independently verify the authenticity of that video, which was reported on by SITE Monitoring.
Yemen's Defence Ministry had earlier said that a military operation had succeeded in freeing a U.S. hostage as well as killing 10 members of the al Qaeda group holding him. But Major General Ali al-Ahmadi, chief of the national security bureau in Yemen, later confirmed he had died.
The operation involved an air strike followed by a raid by U.S. and Yemeni forces, a local security official said. It took place in the Wadi Abdan Al Daqqar region of Shabwa Province in southern Yemen and targeted an al Qaeda group headed by Mubarak al-Harad.
Al Qaeda and allied Islamist militants have a strong presence in large parts of southern and eastern Yemen, an impoverished Arabian Peninsula country where the government has little control outside main cities.
'Please let him live'
Before her brother's death, Lucy Somers released an online video describing him as a romantic who "always believes the best in people." She ended with the plea: "Please let him live."
'[Somers] was so dedicated in trying to help change Yemen's future, to do good things for the people that he didn't leave the country his entire time here.'— Fuad Al Kadas
In a statement, Somers' father, Michael, also called his son "a good friend of Yemen and the Yemeni people" and asked for his safe release.
Somers was kidnapped in September 2013 as he left a supermarket in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, said Fakhri al-Arashi, chief editor of the National Yemen, where Somers worked as a copy editor and a freelance photographer during the 2011 uprising in Yemen.
Somers, who was born in Britain, earned a bachelor's degree in creative writing while attending Beloit College in Wisconsin from 2004 through 2007.
"He really wanted to understand the world," said Shawn Gillen, an English professor and chairman of Beloit College's journalism program who had Gillen as a student.
Fuad Al Kadas, who called Somers one of his best friends, said Somers spent time in Egypt before finding work in Yemen. Somers started teaching English at a Yemen school but quickly established himself as a one of the few foreign photographers in the country, he said.
"He is a great man with a kind heart who really loves the Yemeni people and the country," Al Kadas wrote in an email from Yemen. He said he last saw Somers the day before he was kidnapped.
"He was so dedicated in trying to help change Yemen's future, to do good things for the people that he didn't leave the country his entire time here," Al Kadas wrote.
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