More AL CIA DUH (Al Qaeda) Murders .... and they call themselves SPECIAL FORCES ... reminds me of the Vietnam War SF rescue attempt on a POW Camp, Camp was empty, The Iranian desert collision of 2 US aircraft during the rescue of hostages in Tehran, 8 SF dead, The raid on Bin Laden, a fake and now this, 2 dead US hostages ... Special forces MY ASS!!! ................................................................................................................. Rescue Raid Tripped By Lost Stealth, US Hostages Killed ................................................................................................................. It could have been something as simple as a barking dog that alerted the al Qaeda guards as United States special operations forces approached the compound just after midnight. Within seconds, as they neared the building, intense gunfire erupted. Those details and others provided by US and Yemeni officials about what they describe as yesterday’s execution of American photojournalist Luke Somers and South African teacher Pierre Korkie in Yemen illustrate the formidable odds the US faces in retrieving hostages from the hands of militants across the region. ‘‘There is nothing to indicate what or how these guys knew the team was about to enter the compound,’’ said one US official, speaking on condition of anonymity. US Secretary of State John Kerry and a Yemeni intelligence official said Somers, 33, and Korkie, 56, were shot by their captors shortly after the raid began in the arid Wadi Abadan district of Shabwa, a province in southern Yemen long seen as one of al Qaeda’s most formidable strongholds. The operation, the second attempt to free Somers in 10 days, began with about 40 US commandos in Dafaar, a small village. No Yemenis were involved in the raid, a US defence official said. The commandos arrived on tiltrotor CV-22 Ospreys, which can fly like an airplane and land like a helicopter. Once on the ground, they approached the compound on foot. A barking dog may have given them away, but that remained unclear, an official said. As they approached, they ‘‘lost the element of surprise’’, the official said. A fierce gunfight erupted. ‘‘The enemy started firing erratically and then our guys returned fire,’’ one US official said. The commandos were less than 100 metres from the compound at that point. They shot and killed about 10 people, including al Qaeda guards and some civilians, said Ali al-Ahmadi, Chief of Yemen National Security Bureau. The Pentagon said it was unaware of any civilian casualties. As they fought, an al Qaeda guard darted inside the compound and then exited through the back. Gunfire was heard. That’s when American officials believe Somers and Korkie were killed. With al Qaeda guards wounded or dead, US commandos moved into the compound. They found the hostages with multiple gunshot wounds and carried them to a waiting Osprey, where they were treated. One of the hostages died in the aircraft, the other died once they landed on a nearby assault ship. The raid lasted just five to 10 minutes. The deaths came as a double blow for supporters of Korkie. Charity Gift of the Givers said was pulled on its website: ‘‘We received with sadness the news that Pierre was killed in an attempt by American Special Forces, in the early hours of this morning, to free hostages in Yemen.’’ It added: ‘‘The psychological and emotional devastation to [Korkie’s wife] Yolande and her family will be compounded by the knowledge that Pierre was to be released by al Qaeda tomorrow . . . Three days ago we told her ‘Pierre will be home for Christmas’.’’ Yolande, who was kidnapped with her husband in mid-2013, was released in January after intervention by Gift of the Givers. There was no new information about three other hostages, a Briton, a Turk and a Yemeni, who had previously been held alongside Somers and Korkie, a Yemeni security official said. Early on Saturday President Barack Obama authorised the mission to rescue Somers based on information from the military, law enforcement and the intelligence community. The Pentagon quickly drafted an operational plan. ‘‘We were working against a timeline, which was al Qaeda’s public threat to execute Luke Somers within 72 hours,’’ one senior administration official said. ‘‘It was our assessment that that clock would run out on Saturday.’’ Late on Friday Pentagon officials told the White House they had drafted a plan for the mission. It was reviewed at the White House the next morning and signed off first by Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel and then by Obama. US officials said it had the support of Yemen’s President AbdRabbu Mansour Hadi. The raid was the third failed rescue attempt of an American hostage in five months and followed a November 25 mission that was unsuccessful because Somers had been moved before US commandos arrived. In that raid commandos and Yemeni troops swooped before dawn into a cave in the eastern province of Hadramout. According to a senior Yemeni security official, seven of the eight people freed in the raid told Yemen authorities that they were members of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the militant network’s arm in the country, and had been held captive by the group on suspicion of being Yemen government spies. The seven were detained by AQAP ‘‘not as hostages but as suspects’’, the official said. He did not elaborate and Reuters could not independently confirm his description of those being detained. American officials declined to address the question. Officials at the White House and Pentagon declined to respond to requests by Reuters for comment. The seven – five Yemenis, a Saudi and an Ethiopian – are now being held by Yemen’s government, the official said. It is unclear if the US was aware that al Qaeda members suspected of being government informants were among the people rescued in that raid.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 01:42:55 +0000
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