JOHANNESBURG — Pierre Korkie was supposed to be released Sunday from 18 months of captivity in Yemen under a deal struck by an aid group.
Instead, his widow is mourning her “dearest friend and companion … torn from me and the children” when he was killed Saturday along with American photojournalist Luke Somers during a U.S.-led rescue attempt.
Ten al-Qaeda miltants also were slain in the raid, Yemeni security officials said.
About 40 U.S. special operations forces were involved in the half-hour rescue attempt in Shabwa province, which followed U.S. drone strikes in the area east of the capital of Sana, U.S. officials said. After a firefight with militants, the rescuers reached the men and found them alive but gravely wounded. They both died as medics tried to save them.
Korkie’s body is being flown back to South Africa and is scheduled to arrive today, the government said. Yolande Korkie said in a statement that she and the couple’s two children, Peter and Lize, will reach “some sort of closure.”
The Yemeni security officials who confirmed the deaths of the al-Qaeda militants spoke Sunday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.
Before the rescue attempt, tribal leaders in the Yemeni city of Aden were preparing to fetch Korkie. His captors dropped their ransom fee of $3 million after realizing that Korkie and the negotiators had no money. Instead, Gift of the Givers Foundation had raised a $200,000 “facilitation fee” for the tribal leaders working directly with the al-Qaeda militants to release Korkie.
“I think they realized after 11 months that we were not lying,” said Imtiaz Sooliman, founder of the relief group. “How can a teacher from an ordinary South African family raise that kind of money? He’s an ordinary guy from a farm.”
In her statement, Yolande Korkie chose not to blame anyone for her husband’s death. “Will we win anything if we hate and accuse? Will this return Pierre to us? No,” she said.
