Deaths of Somers and Korkie in Yemen underscore dangers of missions to rescue hostages
As US tries to determine what went wrong, deaths of Somers and Korkie in Yemen underscore dangers of trying to free hostages
The death of American photojournalist Luke Somers in a special forces rescue operation in Yemen was a reminder that such high-risk missions are as likely to fail as to succeed.
US defence officials were trying to determine what went wrong before dawn on Saturday when about 40 special operators converged on a building in Yemen's rugged Shabwa province on a mission that had been designed to surprise.
Instead, the kidnappers became aware of the Americans before they could attack, gunfire broke out, and Somers and a South African hostage, teacher Pierre Korkie, were fatally wounded.
It was the third US-led hostage raid since July that failed to rescue its target alive, underscoring the danger Americans, who have been taken captive by al-Qaeda-inspired groups, face. Because the US government is unwilling to bargain for their freedom, a military rescue becomes the hostages' only hope.
A July 4 raid in northern Syria failed to locate American journalist James Foley, who was subsequently beheaded by the Islamic State, the first of three American hostages killed by the Islamic State. Late last month, US special forces rescued eight Yemenis from a cave in Yemen's Hadramawt province, but Somers, the target of the raid, was not there.
A South African charity, Givers of the Gift, said it had been negotiating for Korkie's freedom in return for a US$3 million ransom, and there were reports that he was to have been released yesterday. Givers of the Gift founder Imtiaz Sooliman said a South African police official who was in Yemen to help arrange Korkie's release had notified him of the teacher's death.
Yemen's national security chief, Major General Ali al Ahmadi, linked the timing of the raid, which US President Barack Obama ordered on Friday, to a video released on Thursday by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. In the video Somers pleaded for help while a leader of the group threatened him with death if the group's unspecified demands were not met.