SANAA, Yemen (AP) — An American photojournalist held by al-Qaida militants in Yemen has been killed in a failed rescue attempt, his sister said Saturday.
Lucy Somers told The Associated
Press that she and her father learned of her 33-year-old brother Luke
Somers' death from FBI agents at 0500 GMT (12 a.m. EST) Saturday.
"We ask that all of Luke's family members be allowed to mourn in peace," Lucy Somers said from London.
There
was no immediate comment from security officials in Yemen's capital,
Sanaa. A U.S. Defense Department official said there was an attempted
rescue Friday to free Somers, but he said he had no information on its
outcome. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he wasn't
authorized to brief journalists.
Yemen's
local al-Qaida branch, Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, posted a
video Thursday that showed Somers, threatening to kill him in three days
if the United States didn't meet the group's demands, which weren't
specified. He was kidnapped in September 2013 from Sanaa.
The news
of the failed rescue comes after a suspected U.S. drone strike in Yemen
killed nine alleged al-Qaida militants early Saturday, a Yemeni
security official said before news of Somers' death. The drone struck at
dawn in Yemen's southern Shabwa province, hitting a suspected militant
hideout, the official said. The official did not elaborate and spoke on
condition of anonymity as he wasn't authorized to brief journalists.At least six suspected militants were killed in an airstrike in the same province last month. Later Saturday, tribal leaders said they saw helicopters flying over an area called Wadi Abdan in Shabwa province.
American authorities rarely discuss their drone strike campaign in Yemen. The strikes are despised by many in Yemen due to civilian casualties, legitimizing for many the attacks on American interests.
Before her brother's death, Lucy Somers released an online video describing him as a romantic who "always believes the best in people." She ended with the plea: "Please let him live."
In a statement, Somers' father, Michael, also called his son "a good friend of Yemen and the Yemeni people" and asked for his safe release.
In
a statement Thursday, Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby
acknowledged for the first time that a mysterious U.S. raid last month
had sought to rescue Somers but that he turned out not to be at the
site. The U.S. considers Yemen's al-Qaida branch to be the world's most
dangerous arm of the group as it has been linked to several failed
attacks on the U.S. homeland.
Kirby
did not elaborate on the joint U.S-Yemeni operation to free Somers,
saying details remained classified. However, officials have said the
raid targeted a remote al-Qaida safe haven in a desert region near the
Saudi border. Eight captives — including Yemenis, a Saudi and an
Ethiopian — were freed. Somers, a Briton and four others had been moved
days earlier.
Somers was kidnapped in September 2013 as he left a
supermarket in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, said Fakhri al-Arashi, chief
editor of the National Yemen, where Somers worked as a copy editor and a
freelance photographer during the 2011 uprising in Yemen.
Somers,
who was born in Britain, earned a bachelor's degree in creative writing
while attending Beloit College in Wisconsin from 2004 through 2007.
"He
really wanted to understand the world," said Shawn Gillen, an English
professor and chairman of Beloit College's journalism program who had
Gillen as a student.