WASHINGTON — U.S. Navy SEALs had walked nearly 7 miles from their landing zone in southern Yemen and were within about 300 feet of the al-Qaeda compound where American journalist Luke Somers was being held when they came under fire, U.S. officials said Saturday.
As the commandos battled in the darkness, night-vision cameras in aircraft hovering overhead watched one militant hurry to the building housing Somers. By the time the Americans fought their way there, the militant was gone and Somers and another hostage, South African teacher Pierre Korkie, lay mortally wounded.
Because of the direction of fire, a defense official said, they were nearly 100 percent certain that Somers and the other hostage were shot by the al-Qaeda militants and not in crossfire.
Korkie died aboard a rescue aircraft, according to officials who provided details of the operation. Somers survived to reach a nearby Navy ship, the USS Makin Island, where he died while undergoing surgery. No casualties were reported among the 40-person U.S. rescue team.
The defense official said five militants were killed in the firefight. None were captured.
After the rescue attempt, which took place at 1 a.m. Saturday Yemen time, officials said that the decision to undertake it was made after U.S. intelligence determined the al-Qaeda captors were about to execute Somers.
But the failure to bring the hostages out alive, after two earlier attempts to rescue U.S. captives in recent months, was likely to raise questions about the operations and the intelligence that preceded them.
Last summer’s raid to rescue Americans being held in Syria by the Islamic State, and an attempt to rescue Somers two weeks ago, did not succeed because in both cases the hostages had been moved before the commandos arrived. Two of the Islamic State hostages, journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, were executed.
In a video released Wednesday after the initial attempt to rescue Somers, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula warned “Obama and the American government of the consequences of proceeding ahead in any other foolish action.”
The threat to execute Somers within 72 hours, if unspecified demands were not met, led to operational planning for a second rescue attempt, which President Barack Obama approved early Friday.
Officials said U.S. intelligence gleaned from the first attempt contributed to their certainty of where Somers was being held, in a group of compounds that make up a small village in Shabwah governate, a remote region along the Gulf of Aden. Defense, intelligence and administration officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details of the secret operation.
It was not immediately clear whether the commandos knew of Korkie’s presence in the compound. The tragedy of the South African’s death appeared to worsen when the South African relief organization that employed him, Gift of the Givers Foundation, said that his negotiated release had been expected Sunday.
Korkie, who had been working as a teacher in Yemen, and his wife, Yolande, were abducted in May 2013. Yolande Korkie was released from captivity in January, according to a post on the foundation’s website.
Somers, 33, a British-born U.S. citizen, was abducted in September 2013 from the Yemeni capital, Sana, on a busy street near a supermarket. He had been working in the country as a freelance photographer.
Hostage executions, video-recorded by militants and disseminated online and via social media, have placed increasing pressure on the Obama administration to launch rescue attempts.
While a number of militant-held European hostages have been released in exchange for million-dollar ransoms, the administration refuses to pay, saying that payment will only increase the number of hostages taken.
