Luke Somers, a U.S. photojournalist being held by al Qaeda in Yemen, was killed by his captors as U.S. troops tried to rescue him, officials said Saturday.
Friday’s rescue attempt came just days after as video emerged in which his captors threatened to kill him unless Washington met their demands, which they did not specify.
Defense officials said Somers and another hostage, identified as Pierre Korkie, a teacher from South Africa, were shot after their captors detected the U.S. forces approaching in CV-22 Osprey aircraft.
“There is zero possibility that the hostages were victims of crossfire. This was an execution,” a military official said, speaking on background.
Officials said the two men were alive when U.S. forces reached them and tried to evacuate them to the USS Makin Island, an amphibious ship off the coast. One died enroute and the other on the operating table.
None of the 40 U.S. troops participating in the raid were killed or injured in the half-hour-long operation, officials said. Six of the al Qaeda terrorists were estimated to have been killed.
The rescue mission was conducted with the cooperation of the Yemeni government, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in a statement.
“Earlier this week, a video released by his terrorist captors announced that Luke would be killed within 72 hours. Other information also indicated that Luke’s life was in imminent danger,” President Obama said in a statement. “Based on this assessment, and as soon as there was reliable intelligence and an operational plan, I authorized a rescue attempt yesterday. I also authorized the rescue of any other hostages held in the same location as Luke.”
Yemen’s national security chief, Maj. Gen. Ali al-Ahmadi, told a conference in Bahrain that the terrorists had planned to kill Somers on Saturday.
“Al Qaeda promised to conduct the execution [of Somers] today so there was an attempt to save them, but unfortunately they shot the hostage before or during the attack,” al-Ahmadi said.
Somers, 33, was kidnapped in Sana’a in September 2013 while working for the Yemen Times newspaper.
Friday’s mission was the second attempt to rescue him. In a raid last month, U.S. special operators and Yemeni forces rescued several other hostages, but Somers was not at the location where he had been expected to be.
Korkie was to have been released Sunday, Gift of the Givers, an aid group working to free him, said in a statement.
This story, originally posted at 8:19 a.m., has been updated.
