Yemeni Al-Qaeda Kills Hostages After Failed US Rescue Attempt

AQAP Fighters Heard US Troops Coming

Last week’s failed raid on al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) fighters in Yemen not only failed to secure the release of a held US hostage, but officials have now confirmed that the hostage, journalist Luke Somers, has been executed by AQAP in the wake of the failure.

AQAP had been hoping to secure a ransom for Somers, and after the raid said they were giving them a deadline for the week’s end on Somers, and have executed both him and a South African hostage.

Officials are offering more details on the failed rescue attempt, revealing that previous reports of a more or less successful operation in which Somers simply wasn’t there, wasn’t strictly true.

Rather, they now say that the AQAP fighters “heard” the US troops coming from about 100 yards away and started firing on them. This apparently gave them time to relocate Somers before the US troops got to him. Officials are blaming it on a “barking dog.”

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.