United States commandos stormed a village in southern Yemen early Saturday in an effort to free an American photojournalist held hostage by Al Qaeda, but the raid ended in tragedy, with the kidnappers killing the American and a South African held with him, United States officials said. The hostages — Luke Somers, an American photojournalist, and Pierre Korkie, a South African teacher — were killed by their captors, militants from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, when they realized the rescue effort was underway. President Obama said he had authorized the operation, led by about three dozen Navy SEAL Team 6 commandos, after concluding that Mr. Somers’s life was in “imminent danger.” It was the second failed operation by United States forces to rescue Mr. Somers from Yemen in less than two weeks. Despite the deaths of the hostages, as well as several Yemeni civilians, President Obama said his administration would not back down from using military power to free its captured citizens. Read more http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/w...scue-attempt-american-official-says.html?_r=1
