The White House acknowledged the existence of a video in which al Qaeda operatives threaten an American hostage’s life and confirmed reports that U.S. special operators last month tried and failed to rescue him.
National Security spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan on Thursday said President Obama last month authorized an operation to rescue Luke Somers, a 33-year-old American photojournalist who appears in the video and whom al Qaeda has held hostage in Yemen since September 2013.
Unfortunately, Somers was not at the location where the attempted rescue took place, although the U.S. special forces team and accompanying Yemeni forces were able to rescue hostages of other nationalities there, she said in a statement.
“We have a strong, collaborative relationship with the Yemeni government and will continue to work together to counter the shared threat we face from [al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula],” she said.
Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen, known as AQAP, in the video gave Washington three days to meet unspecified demands. The terrorist group posted the video on its Twitter account. Somers, who was stringing for the Yemen Times, was kidnapped off the streets in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa in September 2013.
While the details of the attempted rescue operation remain classified, she said the White House and the Pentagon are acknowledging that it occurred to provide accurate information after it was widely reported in various news outlets.
She said the president “could not be prouder” of the U.S. forces who carried out this mission and those intelligence, law enforcement and diplomatic professionals who supported the effort.
“Their effort should serve as another signal to those who would do us harm that the United States will not tolerate the abduction of our people and will spare no efforts to secure the safe return of our citizens and hold their captors responsible.”
Meehan also expressed sympathy for the Somers family.
“At this difficult time, our thoughts remain with the Somers family, and with the families of loved ones of every other U.S. citizen being held hostage overseas,” she said.
