WASHINGTON: US and
Yemeni forces recently tried
unsuccessfully to rescue an
American journalist held by Al
Qaeda, which has now threatened
to execute him, officials
said yesterday.
President Barack Obama
last month approved the rescue
operation to free a number of
hostages, including US national
Luke Somers, held by Al Qaeda
in Yemen, the White House and
the Pentagon said.
“Regrettably, Luke was not
present, though hostages of other
nationalities were present and
were rescued,” National Security
Council spokesperson Bernadette
Meehan said in a statement.
Al Qaeda in Yemen released a
video earlier yesterday threatening
to execute the American photojournalist,
who was abducted
last year in the Yemeni capital.
The details of the operation
remained classified but the government
decided “to provide
accurate information given that
it is being widely reported in the
public domain,” Pentagon press
secretary Rear Admiral John
Kirby said.
A Yemen defence ministry
website had said last week that
Al Qaeda had moved hostages
— including Somers, as well as
a Briton and a South African
— days before the rescue operation
in southeastern Hadramawt
province.
The New York Times earlier
reported American special operations
forces found eight other hostages
in the raid but not Somers.
About two dozen commandos
from the US Navy’s SEAL
special forces, joined by a small
number of Yemeni troops, flew by
helicopter to a location near the
Saudi border for the operation,
the Times reported, citing US and
Yemeni officials.
The SEAL commandos walked
several hundred yards at night to
a moutain cave, taking Al Qaeda
militants by surprise, it said.
The White House vowed
to work relentlessly to free
Americans taken hostage.
The rescue operation “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 effort to secure the
safe return of our citizens and to
hold their captors accountable,”
Meehan said.
She added “our thoughts
remain with the Somers family,
and with the families and loved
ones of every other US citizen
being held hostage overseas.”
The Al Qaeda video included
a message by Nasser bin Ali
Al Ansi, of Al Qaeda in the
Arabian Peninsula, threatening
to kill Somers in three days
if Washington failed to meet
unspecified demands.
US intelligence agencies say
AQAP is the most dangerous
branch of Al Qaeda.
AFP
