American photojournalist Luke Somers, held hostage by al Qaeda in Yemen, was killed Saturday in a failed rescue attempt, his sister said. There was no immediate comment from Washington about operation, which Yemeni officials said was conducted jointly by the U.S. and Yemen.
The British-born hostage's sister, Lucy, told NBC News' partner ITV News and The Associated Press that the FBI had inform the family of the 33-year-old's death.
The operation took place in Shabwa province, a Yemen interior ministry official told NBC News, adding that 10 militants were also killed. It came two days after the Pentagon acknowledged an earlier U.S. commando mission to rescue Somers had failed. Teacher and photographer Somers, a British-born U.S. citizen, was abducted a year ago in Sanaa where he had been working as a freelance photographer for the Yemen Times.
Al Qaeda posted a video Thursday that showed Somers and a local militant commander threatening that thwe hostage would meet his fate in three days if the U.S. didn't meet the group's demands.
This is a breaking news story. - Alastair Jamieson and Charlene Gubash
First published December 6 2014, 12:02 AM
Entities 0 Name: U.S. Count: 4 1 Name: Yemen Count: 4 2 Name: Somers Count: 3 3 Name: al Qaeda Count: 2 4 Name: Luke Somers Count: 1 5 Name: Shabwa Count: 1 6 Name: Washington Count: 1 7 Name: Lucy Count: 1 8 Name: American Count: 1 9 Name: Yemeni Count: 1 10 Name: Charlene Gubash First Count: 1 11 Name: NBC News Count: 1 12 Name: FBI Count: 1 13 Name: Pentagon Count: 1 14 Name: Sanaa Count: 1 15 Name: Alastair Jamieson Count: 1 16 Name: Associated Press Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1q4Ic78 Title: Sister, father of US hostage in Yemen plead for his life Description: The sister and father of an American photojournalist taken hostage by Al Qaeda in Yemen have added their public pleas for his captors to spare his life. Luke Somers was kidnapped in September 2013 in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, where he had been working as a freelance photographer for the Yemen Times.
