Luke Somers, US journalist and Pierre Korkie, South African teacher have been killed by al-Qaeda militants in Yemen during a failed rescue bid.
The operation, which was carried out on Saturday, was done by a joint US and Yemeni special forces in the southern Shabwa region
In a statement, Chuck Hagel, Defense Secretary said that US special operations forces conducted the raid in central Yemen because the life of Somers, appeared to be in “imminent danger.”
“On behalf of the men and women of the U.S. armed forces, I extend our condolences, thoughts, and prayers to their families and loved ones,” he added.
Barack Obama, US President, condemned Somers’s death as a “barbaric murder.”
They were being held by militants from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, AQAP, regarded by the US as one of the deadliest offshoots of al-Qaeda.
The group is based in eastern Yemen and has built up support amidst the unrest which has beset the impoverished country since the overthrow of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011.
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