Hostage Luke Somers killed during rescue attempt
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said that Somers and the other hostage, later identified as South African Pierre Korkie, were “murdered by AQAP [al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula] terrorists during the course of the operation.”
Somers, 33, appeared late Wednesday in a hostage video put online by AQAP in which the terror group said they were going to kill him in three days if their demands — unspecified in the video — were not met. Days before that, a team of U.S. Navy SEALs, along with Yemeni commandos, had attempted to rescue Somers in a raid similar to Friday’s, but he had been moved to another location.
The U.S. government found Somers again, however, and launched the second rescue attempt at 1 a.m. local time Saturday, a senior administration official told ABC News.
The special operations team infiltrated first by Osprey aircraft and then on foot, a defense official said.
But working in difficult, mountainous terrain, the 40-man team was met with gunfire, according to the administration official. During the firefight, one of the AQAP fighters went into the compound holding the hostages just ahead of the American forces. By the time the Americans arrived, both Somers and Korkie had been shot. The commandos got Somers and Korkie out but medics were unable to save them.
We have become used to successful rescue attempts, but that means we can lose sight of how extraordinarily difficult and risky they are to pull off. In this case, it’s also hard if not impossible to know what really happened, because it’s not the sort of thing about which the government would be revealing a lot of details about what went wrong.
If we take the report at face value, however, it appears that someone most likely tipped off the kidnappers about the rescue operation, which gave AQAP time to murder their captives. Does anyone doubt they would do that, if they had warning and time?
This Reuters article has a bit more information, which may or may not be correct:
A U.S. official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said American special forces had conducted the operation alone at 1 a.m. in Yemen, but that the kidnappers had been alerted to their approach shortly before they arrived…
Yemen’s government said in a statement carried on state media that its security forces had led the raid. It said the security forces had surrounded the house and called on the kidnappers to surrender, but they instead shot the hostages.
That led to an assault on the building in which four Yemeni security officers were also wounded, it said.
So, which is it? Reuters doesn’t know, nor do I. But both reports indicate (to me at least) that the kidnappers were most likely tipped off by someone in Yemen who was aware of the plans.
The Reuters article also mentions that the South African hostage who was killed was supposedly, according to the Gift of the Givers relief group, about to be freed on Sunday because they had successfully negotiated for his release. My guess is that, if that is true, it was because a hefty ransom had been paid (the US does not allow this for our hostages, but many other countries do). But whether or not the promise of release was actually going to be carried out or not is impossible to know.
I’m somewhat inclined to give the Obama administration a break on this one, because of the inherent difficulty of such operations. It is better to attempt a rescue and fail than to allow hostages to be murdered after reciting words given to them by their captors, and their deaths and/or dead bodies videotaped and spread around the world for propaganda purposes.
It is, of course, far better for the rescues to be successful, but realistically speaking that is not going to happen 100% of the time.
RIP Luke Somers and Pierre Korkie, and condolences to their grieving families.
Yes, condolences to the friends and families of the hostages that were murdered.
Consider, however: The Russian Spetznaz is roughly equivalent to our Special Forces. It is reported that their policy is to shoot through the hostages in order to kill captors. I modestly propose that the Western world adopt a similar policy. If noble volunteers still wish to attempt humanitarian services in savage countries, they should understand the risk that they are taking, and should not rely upon our civilization’s humanitarian impulse to put the lives of our Special Forces teams at risk to save them.
This will continue until we find the strength to incinerate whole cities. Sooner or later….. Not that one approves of such measures but they are the only ones that will work and they will be,… sooner or later… the ones employed.
“Navy Seals hiked six miles and got within 100 yards of Yemen compound where executed US hostage was being held – before a dog bark alerted al-Qaeda captors”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2863215/British-born-U-S-photojournalist-held-hostage-al-Qaeda-killed-failed-rescue-attempt-Yemen.html
More details…..
At least the attempt was made. And some terrorists died. Better that than to let them do more snuff propaganda videos in complete safety. Let them know there is a price to be paid for attacking us and our citizens.
I’m very sorry for the families of the hostages. It is painful beyond anything to lose a child. My heart goes out to them.
It is amazing that so many libs seem to believe that their good intentions will protect them. If only it was true. 🙁
Unless Hussein’s Regime leaked the details of the op, like they did with Seal Team Six.
Clauswitz in On War uses the word “friction” to describe how things go wrong on the battlefield. In war, he says, everything is simple, but even simple things are extremely difficult. From the available information, it sounds like this operation failed on account of friction, which can never be eliminated.
By now we’ve seen enough beheading videos that we can safely assume that this man was not getting out of there alive barring a military rescue, so this probably represented a reasonable risk in the circumstances. It was a brave attempt, and no blame attaches to anyone.
Rusty.
Quibble. Our Special Forces are not equivalent to Spetnaz. Our green beanies’ primary role is to organize llocal forces, sometimes behind enemy lines. The first effort in Afghanistan had a few of them organizing and controlling Northern Front guys and others going after the Taliban.
Spetnaz are cutthroat commandos. Our Delta Force, SEALS, and to a lesser extent the jarheads’ Force Recon are commandos. Their role is striking hard with themselves as the shooters.
Since our SF are the best soldiers in anybody’s army, they can be and are used in many roles. But you don’t need what amounts to a masters in cultural anthropology and linguistics as the SF have to mesh with the locals wherever in order to, say, kill bin Laden.
I have long marveled at those who cavalierly travel to areas where there are many locals subscribing to a religion bitterly opposed to and intolerant of the existence of infidels. One hopes that – for the sake of the naifs – those suicidal tendencies are subsiding.
Yep. The “suicidal tendencies are subsiding” thanks to everyone who has been beheaded.
R Aubrey:
Given that I’m prone to “quibbling” myself, point well taken. I’m not quite sure which armed branch of our government is responsible for international hostage recovery. The Geneva Convention was a grand illusion; it evaporated when some rude beast began slouching toward Bethlehem to be born. I think the best way to deal with it is a JDAM, or carpet bombing.
Rusty
See Haney’s “Delta Force”. They seem to be the go-to guys for smaller ops.
The more guys you need, the more likely you’ll be going to Rangers–first-rate light Infantry. But usually that would be a fight. A sneak and shoot and scoot raid would be Delta or SEALS, or an ad hoc group including Special Forces if liaising with the locals is necessary.
SEALs and Delta will say their ideal op would hardly be noticed. IOW, they sneak in someplace and snatch, say, a computer, or a single individual. They’re not always about killing somebody which, as you point out, can be done by other means.
A good many countries have this capability. The Brits have their SAS and SBS. The French, iirc, DGSE. The Germans pulled off a pretty good one years ago with a captured airliner.