Obama decries ‘barbaric murder’ of US hostage in Yemen

U.S. special forces raided a Yemeni village on Saturday to try to rescue an American hostage, who was killed in what President Obama called a “barbaric murder.”

Al Qaeda militants killed the American hostage, photojournalist Luke Somers, after being alerted to the raid, according to government statements and news reports.

{mosads}The kidnappers also killed a second hostage, Pierre Korkie, a South African, in the raid, according to reports.

In a statement, Obama said he authorized the raid just on Friday, after advisers said that Somers’s life was in “imminent danger.”

The photojournalist’s captors had recently said they would kill Somers by the end of the week, and Pentagon officials acknowledged this week that they had unsuccessfully tried to rescue Somers late last month.

“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,” Obama said.  

“And terrorists who seek to harm our citizens will feel the long arm of American justice.”

The most recent raid to rescue Somers went awry when a noise alerted his captives, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Somers’s killing also underscores the difficulty U.S. special forces face in conducting these sorts of raids, even as they have become increasingly utilized by the military and were used to kill Osama bin Laden in 2011.

The raid occurred very early on Saturday morning, according to multiple news reports. One militant immediately went to where the special forces believed the hostages were being held, the Journal reported. U.S. officials believe that is when Somers and Korkie were shot.

The two hostages were removed from the Yemeni compound within about a half hour of the raid’s start, the Journal said. One of the two hostages died on the helicopter evacuating them from the scene, and the other on an assault ship just off the coast of Yemen.

Obama and other senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, thanked the Yemeni government for their cooperation in the raid.

Kerry said he was “proud of the brave men and women of the U.S. military who twice risked their lives in operations to try and bring Luke home safely.”

“We also appreciate the efforts of the dedicated intelligence, law enforcement, and diplomatic professionals who supported these operations, and we are particularly grateful to the Yemeni government,” he added.

U.S. officials had been coy about their role in the Nov. 25 raid to try and secure Somers, who wasn’t with the eight other al Qaeda-held hostages freed at that time.  Somers was kidnapped while in Sana, Yemen’s capital, 15 months ago.

Korkie was to be released this weekend, according to a South African group negotiating with his captors. The New York Times reported Saturday that Korkie’s wife was released in January, and the group, Gift of the Givers, had been negotiating with the militants to secure Korkie’s release.

This post was updated at 12:24 p.m.