The White House acknowledged Thursday that American and Italian hostages being held by al Qaeda were killed in Pakistan during a U.S. drone strike in January.
“It is with tremendous sorrow that we recently concluded that a U.S. government counterterrorism operation in January killed two innocent hostages held by al Qaeda,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said. “Our hearts go out to the families of Dr. Warren Weinstein, an American held by al Qaeda since 2011, and Giovanni Lo Porto, an Italian national who had been an al Qaeda hostage since 2012.”
Obama is expected to address the incident from the White House Thursday at 10 a.m.
The White House revealed Thursday that American-born al Qaeda member Ahmed Farouq was killed during the same drone strike. The White House also said that Adam Gadahn, an American who became a prominent member of al Qaeda, was killed in a separate operation.
The White House, however, acknowledged that neither Farouq nor Gadahn were specifically targeted.
Obama “takes full responsibility for these operations and believes it is important to provide the American people with as much information as possible about our counterterrorism operations, particularly when they take the lives of fellow citizens,” Earnest said. “To this end, although the operation was lawful and conducted consistent with our counterterrorism policies, we are conducting a thorough independent review to understand fully what happened and how we can prevent this type of tragic incident in the future.”
